Surviving
by silverserein
Summary: Reader x Levi Attack on Titan AU Modern "A thanks would be appreciated, after all I'm the reason both of us are still living," said the cocky man. [Name] looked out the bloodstained window and watched the walking corpses, "Not living; surviving."
1. Chapter One - Welcome to Los Angeles

**This story was originally wrote and published on Quotev & then added to Wattpad around 2014 so there's probably a lot of mistakes in it since I'm just transferring it over to this website.  
**

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"Please turn off all electronics and put your seat belts on. The plane will be arriving in Los Angeles in fifteen minutes," the blonde flight attendant spoke into the speaker.

[Name] sighed and pulled out her [favorite color] ear buds, then tucked them and her phone away in her black sweatshirt's pocket. She yawned quietly with outstretched arms, and accidentally smacked the person beside her in the face. She put her arms down quickly and looked at the man's annoyed facial expression. "Sorry. Won't happen again," [Name] mumbled then turned her head away from the glaring man. [Name] reached for her seat belt and easily strapped herself in the not-so-comfortable blue plane seat.

Sighing out of boredom, [Name] impatiently tapped her nails on the plastic white table in front of her. On it, there was two empty chocolate pudding cups, half a bottle of water, and a licked clean plastic spoon. The plane didn't have many food choices to choose from - just the simple, cheap things they serve in the movies. [Name] thought that when she actually flew on a plane herself, it wouldn't be as bad as they make it in the movies.

But it was.

Aside from the tasteless, cheap food they served, a ten year old boy had kicked [Name]'s chair for two hours straight while making rude remarks before passing out, and in the seats across from her a child cried nonstop while the mother ignored the loud crying completely by plugging her ears with pink ear buds.

Yep, just as bad as in the movies.

A short brunette flight attendant walked down the narrow pathway between the seats collecting any trash the passengers had. She stopped by [Name]'s seat and threw the trash into the black garbage bag with a fake smile spread across her face. [Name] thanked her quietly with a small smile before the woman walked away. The [hair color] girl sunk back into the blue chair and let out another bored sigh. She turned her head and faced the man that glared at her many times on the long flight.

"You know, you glared at me awfully a lot during this long time period we've been together," [Name] said. The man just lazily shrugged his shoulders and continued reading the science magazine he held in his large hands.

"I think you own me an apology, after all we might never see each other again," [Name] said blinking innocently with a hand over her heart. The blonde man turned his head and looked at her straight in the eyes.

"That would be a dream come true."

"You apologizing and then us being the best of friends, but then we have to part ways until we meet next because of fate?" [Name] asked looking into the distance with a smile plastered on her face.

"No," the man said bluntly which instantly crushed the overly excited girl's day dream. The hopeful smile disappeared as quickly as it appeared and she snapped her head to the blonde main, "What?"

"It'd be a dream come true for me to never have to see you again," the man said then went back to his lame science magazine. [Name] crossed her arms and huffed.

"I didn't like you anyways."

[Name] smiled as she walked out the busy airport. Her flight landed safely and she was finally able to get off and stretch like she never stretched before. Her legs were still slightly numb, but she shrugged it off. She was just happy she wasn't sitting next to the rude blonde man anymore. After they had piled out of the plane, [Name] walked up to the man, stuck her tongue out at him, then skipped away shouting, "Bye bitch!" at him. She wasn't able to see his reaction, but she imagined it in her head and had a good laugh at it.

Now, [Name] stood at the edge of the sidewalk hopelessly trying to catch the attention of a cab, but was failing miserably. She let out an annoyed sigh and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Great. I can't even get a freaking cab," the [hair color] girl said with disappointment in her voice. Someone tapped shyly on her shoulder, it was so light she barely felt it. She removed her hands from her face and turned around and met the eyes of a cute man. He was tall with light blue eyes and brunette hair. He smiled at her with his perfectly straight pearly whites.

"Having trouble?" he asked kindly. [Name] stared at him, absorbing his beautiful face and body. She blinked and looked away for a second, "Huh? O-oh yeah, I guess."

The man smiled once again, and stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a perfectly sounding whistle. Seconds later, a yellow cab pulled up in front of them. [Name] stood there with her mouth open.

"How'd you do that?" she asked staring at him with amazement.

"I've lived here my whole life," he explained. [Name] nodded understanding, then opened the backseat of the cab. "Well, thanks a lot," she said smiling at the nice stranger. [Name] shoved her [favorite color] suitcase in her backseat then stepped in herself and shut the door. The nice stranger nodded then walked away out of sight. [Name] sighed, she was hoping that he'd give her his number, or ask for hers. But her life wasn't a cliche movie where you meet a cute stranger right off the bat and end up getting married.

No, her life was a simple, boring, normal life.

"Where to little lady?" the cab driver asked checking her out in the review mirror. [Name] scrunched up her nose in disgust and looked down at the business card she was given. "Uh.. Survey Corps building," she said, but it came out more like a question. The driver nodded then stepped on the gas peddle.

The cab smelled like a mixture of cat piss and dog food. But there was the slightest smell of strawberry from the probably expired car freshener. After what seemed like forever to [Name] (it was actually only fifteen minutes) the cab pulled up to a tall skyscraper that had the words 'Survey Corps' carved above the door in bold letters. The cab driver turned around slapping his gum, "That'll be twelve bucks little lady."

[Name] rolled her eyes and pulled out twelve dollars and handed it to the disgusting cab driver. He counted it then nodded, and [Name] quickly grabbed her suitcase and got out of the cab. She smelled her sleeve to make sure she didn't smell like cat piss and dog food from sitting in that cab. And her to luck, she didn't. She still smelled like her classic cotton and strawberries.

The only reason she had come to Los Angeles was to do a job interview for Survey Corps, her previous boss had kindly sent her information to the building in Los Angeles (probably because he wanted her to get as far away as possible) in hope that she'd be accepted for an interview. They were impressed with her IQ score, along with all the other information that was sent and called saying she was accepted for a job interview. The pay would be nice - really nice. That's why she packed up and came as soon as possible.

[Name] walked in the building receiving multiple stares. She was wearing gray sweatpants that were two sizes bigger than she needed, and a black sweatshirt with black combat boots. It wasn't exactly the professional look, but she had only worn it to be comfortable on the plane. [Name] immediately found a women's bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls. She sat her suitcase over to toilet and zipped it open. Her [eye color] eyes quickly found the black knee-length skirt, white button up, and royal blue blazer.

[Name] changed out of her lazy outfit into her professional one. She then shoved her clothes and shoes in the suitcase and pulled out her matching blue heels. She slipped them on easily and zipped her suitcase back up. After flattening the wrinkles in her shirt, she picked up her suitcase and walked out of the bathroom. This time she didn't get any odd stares, meaning she blended in perfectly.

"Time to get this show on the road," [Name] said to herself.

"Thank you for interviewing, we'll call you in a couple of da-" The professional woman started to say but was cut off by a loud scream. Both girls furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. "Excuse me, I'm going to see what happened. I'll be right back," the woman said then exited the room. [Name] let out her breath she didn't know she was even holding. The interview had gone well - at least that's what she hoped.

She was nervous, no doubt, but she answered the questions as truthfully as she could. [Name] wondered what that scream was about, but shrugged it off. It was probably someone who got fired and didn't want to believe it then got mad and screamed at the boss. Yeah, that was probably it. [Name] stood up and stretched her arms out. The interview lasted almost two hours, and even though the chairs were comfortable, her joints still felt numb. The [eye color] eyed girl walked over to Terra Lakeride's desk. She was the one who interviewed her.

The desk was neatly organized. There was a stack of papers, a laptop, and a couple sticky notes. In the right corner of the desk there was a photograph in a picture frame. It was Terra standing next to a man who had his arms wrapped around her waist and there were two children standing in front of them with big smiles. [Name] smiled, assuming it was her family. They seemed like the perfect family. Happy, together, whatever you'd describe as perfect.

There was shuffling at the door, along with what [Name] thought was knocking. [Name] furrowed her eyebrows.

"Terra? Is that you?" [Name] asked staring at the door. She got nothing but the shuffling and pounding on the door. [Name] thought that maybe Terra got locked out or something. She walked towards the door and swung it open. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her.

"T-Terra?" [Name] asked nervously. Terra's clothes were ripped, and blood was all over her body. The smell of death surrounded her limping body.

"Terra, what happened? Are you okay? Are you hurt? Why are you bleeding? What about the scream?" Questions rambled out of [Name]'s mouth and she couldn't help it. Terra didn't give any answers; just continued walking towards her with her bloody arms stretched out in front of her. [Name] gulped and took slow steps back.

"Terra?" [Name] asked once again. This time she got an animal growl from the woman. The growl was followed by moans that made [Name] even more confused. "W-what? What are you trying to say?" [Name] questioned. Terra was closer now, her bloody fingers gripped onto [Name]'s white shirt; staining it with red. [Name] gasped and yanked Terra's hand away.

"What are you doing?!" [Name] asked raising her voice slightly. Terra lunged at her, but [Name] dodged it and pushed her away.

"I'm going to call the police," [Name] threatened holding up her phone. But it didn't seem to phase the bloodied girl. She continued getting closer to [Name]. [Name] quickly dialed nine-one-one after Terra tried grabbing her once again.

"Sorry, but the number you are calling is currently busy at the time. Please try again later," the robotic voice said. [Name]'s eyes widened. How could it be busy? Is that even possible? She tried calling it again, but only to hear the same message. By this time, Terra had gotten close enough to [Name] and grabbed at her. [Name] fell back and landed on her butt, accidentally bring Terra down with her. Terra kept growling as she crawled towards the scared girl. [Name] kept backing up while breathing heavily. What was happening?

[Name]'s back smacked into the wall causing her to panic. "Oh no, no, no, no, no," [Name] said looking around for an exit.

There wasn't one.

Terra clawed [Name]'s face, opening a fresh wound. [Name] gasped at the stinging sensation. Terra crawled on top of [Name], making her clothes all bloody. [Name] gulped and shouted for help.

"Help! Somebody please help me!" [Name] shouted hopelessly. But it was useless. Terra's face was inches away from hers. A mixture of drool and blood dripped onto [Name]'s face causing her to spit it back at Terra. Terra opened her mouth and let out an abnormal noise. [Name] closed her eyes ready to welcome death.

"This is it. This is really it. I'm going to be murdered," she thought.

Suddenly, someone smacked Terra in the head and sent blood spattering all over [Name]. [Name] gasped and opened her eyes to see a raven haired man with cold blue eyes. He held a metal pipe and stared down at her with bored eyes. He was wearing a business suit that had blood spattered all over the chest and legs.

"You're all dirty," were the first words that came out of his mouth.

[Name] opened her mouth to say something then closed it quickly. She pushed Terra's dead body off of her and stood up. The man was short, but still taller than her.

"W-what happened?" [Name] asked.

"I don't know. But there's blood everywhere in this building," he said disgusted.

[Name] opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by a growlish-moan from the doorway of the office. The raven haired man turned around and rolled his eyes. He walked over to the bloodied man and brought down the pipe on his head. Hard. The man fell down cold.

"From what I can collect, these.. things attack people and eat their flesh until they die. Then the dead person wakes up as one of them," the man said pointing the dead body. [Name]'s eyes widened.

"Are you saying they were already dead?" she asked in disbelief.

"That's what I've seen at least," the man nodded.

"But.. why? Don't they only have that stuff in movies and video games?" [Name] asked.

"I guess not. Look-"

"[Name]."

"[Name], we need to get out of here. Of at least I have to. I honestly don't give a fuck if you decide to come along, but I'd guess it'd be best for you if you did," the man said. [Name] nodded and followed him out the door. He was right, everything was bloody. "Follow me," he said. [Name] nodded and followed him through the halls. There was bloody everywhere, pieces of clothing, pieces of flesh even. There were even some dead bodies laying around. [Name] gulped and shook her head.

"Do you work here?" [Name] decided to try and start a conversation.

"Yeah," was all he said. [Name] nodded shyly. They arrived at another office and walked in. "Lock the door," he said. [Name] twisted the lock on the door. There was blood all over in this room. On the walls, floor, windows. "Here, take this. You can at least make yourself somewhat useful," the man said holding out a hammer. [Name] opened her mouth and grabbed it out of his hands.

"I am too useful!" she exclaimed with a huff.

"Yeah, that why you were screaming for help earlier," he said and rolled his eyes. [Name] huffed and turned away from the rude man.

"A thanks would be appreciated, after all I'm the reason both of us are still living," said the cocky man. [Name] looked out the bloodstained window and watched the walking corpses, "Not living; surviving."


	2. Chapter Two - Supplies

"Do you have a plan, or are you going to just sit there a clean your precious pipe?"

[Name] was getting annoyed by the dark haired man. He had dragged her into the bloody office, only so she could watch him scrub off the blood on his pipe? She didn't like it, and frankly - she was quite bored. The man stopped and looked up at the [hair color] haired girl. His face wore an bored looked; and his cold blue eyes stared blankly at her. She rolled her eyes, not liking the look he was giving her.

"On the other side of the building there's a room that should have all the supplies we would need. We'll get going soon so just shut the fuck up and wait," the man said then went back to cleaning. [Name] stared at him with an angry face. "People are dying right now," she said. "People are bound to die one way or another," the man said bluntly. [Name] scowled at him for his remark. Yes - it was true; she'll admit that much. But people were dying faster, quicker, and more painfully now.

"Right now someone just died and there could've been a possibility that we could have saved them," [Name] argued. She didn't like death - or anything to do with the cruel matter. But to her luck; the building reeked with death. It had the sickly sweet smell of a burning body mixed with a dead possum that had died under your porch months ago. Yeah, that smell.

"You want to go? Then go. Go save whoever you want," the man said outstretching his arm to the bloodstained door.

"Well, I can't just go alone. I mea-"

"Why not?" questioned the man.

[Name] frowned. She wasn't the most skilled type, and she didn't even know if she'd be able to kill another person.

"Well, becaus-"

"Because you need me. Face it sunshine, you aren't going to be able to walk three feet before dying to one of Them," the man said truthfully. It may or may not have been true. [Name]'s uncle had taught her basic fighting skills for self-defense when she was twelve. The only reason to that was because at the time she had started puberty earlier and looked like she was at least sixteen or older; in other words, a lot of creeps tried hitting on twelve year old [Name]. She hasn't had to use any of the moves she learned since she was seventeen (a guy grabbed her butt then continued trying to sweet talk her into sleeping with him) and she was probably a little bit rusty. That was only a few years ago, but a lot had happened to [Name] (mainly a lot of paperwork which caused her to never get a glimpse of sun) within that time-span.

"I-I could do it!" [Name] said trying to sound confident, but her voice cracked and wavered ruining the confident act. The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? Then go out there right now. By yourself," he said looked at her. [Name] glanced over at the door and gulped.

"No."

The man smirked, "That's because you need me. Admit it."

"I don't even know your name," [Name] said. She didn't, but she could think of some that would go a lot with his rude and cocky personality.

"Levi," he said then stood up straight.

"Huh?" [Name] asked not paying attention.

"That's my name," Levi said. [Name] blinked then nodded. "Levi.. Huh. You look like more of a Dick," [Name] said with a smirk. Levi glared at her causing her gaze to turn away from his. "Let's go," Levi said breaking the uneasy silence. [Name] nodded and watched him stick his head out the door. Levi glanced at both sides of the hallway to make sure it was clear. He then walked out of the bloodied room, [Name] following close behind. The hallway smelled of death - as did the rest of the building. Blood was spattered on the walls, along with the floor and ceiling. [Name] stared at some of the pools of blood that stuck out from the white tiles, and while observing it she noticed tiny pieces of flesh that were drenched in the dark red blood swimming in it. She blinked and looked away quickly to avoid throwing up at the sight.

Levi peeked around the corner of the hallway then turned around to face [Name] and put a finger up to his lips. [Name] nodded but gave him a curious look. Levi's footsteps became silent as he walked at a slow pace. [Name], too, slowed her pace to make her footsteps quiet. Furrowing her eyebrows, [Name] wondered why they were being so silent. Then she saw it.

[Name] walked around the corner only a foot away from Levi. Despite his rudeness, he was surprisingly strong which made [Name] feel a little bit safer - especially now. There was a dead body leaned up against the wall. [Name] couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, because the corpse's face had been torn off, but she assumed it was a man judging from the suit the body wore. The - what [Name] assumed it was previously nice and expensive - suit had been stained with the body's blood, and possibly other people's. Crouched down between the legs of the faceless corpse, was one of Them. [Name] could tell from the deathly smell that surrounded it's dark aura. The clothes it was wearing when it was actually alive and had a soul were torn in piece and revealed it's pale back. It wasn't just any normal type of pale that people with ginger hair, or people who never got out had. It was the type of pale they make the people who play dead in the crime television shows wear. [Name] had always wondered who they made their whole body that sickly pale color with just makeup.

The sickly pale woman was bent over devouring something in her hands. [Name] was able to get a small glance at what it was, then instantly regretted it. In the hands of the - the thing - were the dead man's intestines. [Name] never imagined what they would actually look like, they looked a lot more.. disturbing than in the text books. There wasn't a solid color to them; it was a mixture of browns, pinks, and reds. The noise the thing made while it devoured the disgusting insides of the dead man was enough for [Name] to throw up all the cheap airplane food right there at that exact moment.

Levi and [Name] silently walked past the human-eating being. It didn't notice them; it was too busy loudly devouring the intestines. [Name] didn't realize it until after the two of them were out of sight of the thing, but she had a death gripe on Levi's now red left hand. She didn't even know when she grabbed it. It must've been when she saw the thing bent over the dead man. After noticing their hands touching, [Name] quickly pulled her's away as her face turned red from embarrassment. Levi didn't seem to notice. He didn't even turn his head to look at her red face.

They continued walking through the bloodstained halls (occasionally running into one of Them or a dead body which caused [Name] to freak out on the inside) until the reached the other side of the large building. To [Name]'s surprise, they didn't encounter as many of Them as she had thought they would. But thanks to Levi, he bashed them in the head and killed them if any of Them noticed the two survivors. [Name] assumed that most of the walking corpses were on some of the higher floors. They were on the bottom floor, and there weren't many offices on the bottom floor compared to the others. The main reason being the extremely large waiting room. [Name] wondered how many of Them were roaming above them. How many survivors there were.

"We're here," Levi said breaking [Name] out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw a large metal door with a password lock on it. Levi entered a five digit number, which caused it to make a small beep noise then unlock. Levi gripped the handle and twisted it open. He motioned [Name] to come in, which she did, then walked in himself and shut the door. The metal door automatically locked itself after it slammed shut.

Levi walked over to the large cabinet that sat in the middle of the small room. There was a padlock on it - and [Name] had no doubt that he knew that password too.

He did.

"Here, take this." Levi said handing [Name] a backpack. [Name] took it and looked inside of it. Like he said - basic survival needs. Food, water, extra clothes, matches, a blanket, and a pocket knife. [Name] pulled out the extra clothes: jean shorts, black combat boots, and a black v-neck. Levi raised an eyebrow at her.

"Turn around," [Name] ordered. Levi stared at her for a few seconds before reluctantly turning about and crossing his arms over his chest. [Name] sighed and shrugged off her torn and bloodied blue blazer. It kind of upset her - it was designer and cost a lot. But it's not like that mattered anymore. Not after the world had gone to Hell.

She then unbuttoned her not-so-white shirt and lazily tossed it on the ground leaving her in nothing but her black lace bra and knee-length skirt. She looked over at Levi and saw he had his head turned and was looking at her. She gasped and covered her exposed bra.

"I told you not to look!" [Name] exclaimed glaring at him.

"No. You told me to turn around," Levi argued. [Name] growled and turned her back to him and pulled the black shirt over her head. Since it was a v-neck, it exposed a lot of her cleavage. It didn't bug her that much, she just hoped he wouldn't say anything about it. She turned to looked at Levi and saw that he was going through the supplies in the cabinet - basic medical supplies such as bandages, alcohol, swapped, ect.

As quickly as she could, she took of her torn shirt and pulled on the short jean shorts. She glanced over at Levi to see he was still sorting through the medical supplies and let out a relieved sigh. She kicked off her painful heels and pulled on the combat boots - which to her felt ten times better.

"Are you done now?" Levi asked picking up a bottle of rubbing alcohol and shoving it in his backpack. "Yeah," [Name] said with a nod. He turned his head and tossed her a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a package of bandages, and a small sewing kit. [Name] barely caught it all, but ended up managing to. [Name] shoved them into her black backpack and looked up at Levi. He was struggling to untie the knot in his dark ocean blue tie. It had gotten knotted up after all Hell broke loose.

"Here," [Name] said walking over to him and grabbing his tie out of his hands. He didn't say anything, but aloud her to take it out of his hands. He looked up at her with his usual emotionless eyes [Name] had noticed that never change expression. [Name] had come to the conclusion that the man barely had a soul - or that he was just really good at hiding his emotions.

Either way, he was blunt about basically everything.

She undid the knot fairly easily and then backed away from him. "I don't see why that was so hard for you," [Name] said with a chuckle. Levi glared at her. "I would've gotten it eventually," he argued. [Name] rolled her eyes and nodded letting out a sarcastic sure. Levi just glared at her one more time before shrugging off his suit jacket (or whatever those things are called) and tossing it on the cement floor. [Name] just messed around with the straps of her backpack and tried getting it in the right spot so it wasn't too loose or too tight. But when [Name] looked up her eyes widened when Levi unbuttoned his bloodstained white shirt and revealed his nice row of abs.

"Take a picture, it might last longer." Levi said with an amused smirk. [Name]'s eyes widened even more (if that's even possible) and looked away. She felt the heat on her cheeks and knew she was blushing. "I wasn't staring at anything," she argued. Levi raised an eyebrow and dropped his dress pants. [Name]'s eyes glanced over at him then immediately covered her eyes and looked away.

"What the hell?!" [Name] exclaimed.

"What? They were all dirty. I'm not wearing those," Levi said stepping into the ripped jeans that he found in his backpack. He pulled out his belt from his dress pants and tightened the waist of the jeans.

"Doesn't mean you have to strip half naked in front of me," [Name] argued.

"I didn't say you had to watch," Levi smirked pulling over the black v-neck that looked similar to [Name]'s.

[Name] turned around and glared at him.


	3. Alone

After Levi had gotten dressed, he calmly walked over to the skinny tall shelf that stood in the back of the room. [Name] wasn't exactly sure what was inside - but she had a pretty good idea. It was tall and skinny; there were most likely weapons in it, especially guns. Levi opened the skinny cabinet and let out a low whistle.

"What is it?" [Name] walked walking behind him. Levi bent down and picked up two hand guns and observed them. Guns weren't exactly Levi's thing; he'd much rather have a melee weapon. And to his luck, there were two swords in the cabinet. It didn't surprise him - the owner of the Survey Corps was half Japanese, and on his spare time he'd practice his sword fighting skills with his daughter. It wasn't a surprise that his choice of swords were locked away in the emergency room. Levi tucked the small hand gun in the back on his pants; like they did in the TV shows and movies. [Name] did the same thing, this was the first time she'd ever done that. It felt weird to her.

Levi put on the pack-like straps that could hold the two swords on his back. He then slipped the two swords into the sockets and pulled his backpack over them. "You ready?" He asked turning around to face [Name]. [Name] finished placing the eight knifes in the leg bracelet (I don't know what to call it) and nodded.

"Don't use your gun unless it's an emergency, I'm pretty sure these things are attracted to sound," Levi explained opening the metal door. [Name] nodded but didn't say anything. She decided it'd be best to follow his lead - he did save her from death, after all. It's the least she could do. As they walked out of the now emptied room, [Name] pulled her hair into a high pony tail, and let pieces of her bangs fall carelessly onto her face.

"What're we going to do now?" [Name] asked catching up so she was walking beside the raven haired man.

"This building isn't safe, and there's not food or anything here," he started, "and I think there's a company van in the parking lot. So we'll take that and find a safe place."

[Name] nodded and looked forward. Her [hair color] hair bounced as she walked. She didn't have her bloody hammer anymore; she now held an axe. The blade part was painted red, and the stick was dark wood. It was heavy in her hands, but she'd get used to the extra weight soon enough. The duo walked together in silence. It wasn't necessarily awkward silence, but more of a I-don't-know-what-to-talk-about kind of silence. [Name] was okay with that though. She didn't want to attract unnecessary attention from any of Them.

[Name] wondered what they were called. She's just been calling them 'Them' or 'thing'. Then it clicked in her mind - zombies. She didn't know why she didn't realize it earlier; she'd seen so many movies and played so many games with them in it. The only thing that bugged her about it, is that she watched a show that said it was scientifically impossible. That zombies were scientifically impossible.

So how did this happen?

"We're hear brat," Levi said breaking her out of her thoughts. She shook her head and followed him into the back parking lot. It was an underground one - and the flickering lights only made it darker than it already was.

"They're zombies, aren't they?" [Name] asked as they walked on the black pavement.

"Took you long enough to realize it," Levi said.

"But's that scientifically impossible!" [Name] exclaimed not wanting to believe it.

"Will you keep your voice down? I don't want to attract any of them. And I don't care if it is or isn't, it's happening so shut up about it brat," Levi said harshly. [Name] glared at him as they walked up to the black van. It had the words 'Survey Corps' on it in bold white letters, and the company logo on it - 'The Wings of Freedom.'

Levi got in the driver's seat while [Name] opened the door to the passenger's seat. Levi looked at where the keys should've been - but they weren't there.

"Dammit," Levi muttered opening the van door.

"W-what are you doing?" [Name] asked watching him get out of the van.

"I'm going to get the keys. I know where they are, you stay here," Levi explained and walked off into the distance of the dark underground parking lot. [Name] gulped.

She was alone.


	4. Just an Animal

[Name] sat there in the cold, dark car alone. She could barely see anything because the dim lights kept flickering every seconds, which only caused her imagination to get the best of her when she blinked. It was like watching a strobe light that wasn't very bright, and after you stared at it for a certain amount of time you'd see dots whenever you blinked. That's what it was like for her at the moment.

The [hair color] colored girl held onto her new knife tightly. She had grabbed it from the cabinet when they were searching it. It was pretty big for a knife; almost like a small sword. It was a little bit smaller than half of her arm, and was as sharp as a shark's tooth.

She had to admit - she was scared.

She was alone; in a dark lit area. Sure, [Name] had weapons, but she didn't know how to use all that well yet. She wasn't used to the feel of them. To how to swing them, and stab with them yet.

"It's okay," [Name] assured herself gripping onto the knife's base, "it's all going to be okay."

A loud sound came from her right, causing her to jump. Her head snapped over towards the noise, but didn't see anything.

"It's probably an animal," she said.

"Yeah, just an animal. Like a cat, or raccoon," she continued.

She breathed in and let out a heavy exhale. She was nervous; what if Levi didn't come back? No, he could take care of himself. But there was still that possibility.

There was another loud noise, this time closer and louder.

[Name]'s head snapped to her right, and she struggled to keep calm. Deep down; she knew it wasn't an animal. She knew it was probably one of Them - zombie, walker, whatever you want to call it. She faced forward and closed her eyes.

"Just an animal. Don't get worked up about it," [Name] said, trying to calm herself down. But it wasn't working - no matter how many times she insisted it was an animal she still showed and felt fear. Pale, bruised, bloodied hands smacked down on the clear window. [Name] let out a squeal and looked at the blood streaked window. The zombie's hands has slid down the window slowly, and made a squeaky noise doing so.

"I knew it wasn't a fucking animal," [Name] growled and mental slapped herself for her amateur stupidity. The zombie had pressed it's face up against the window, trying to get through the glass. One of it's rolled backed eyes hung out of the socket and just dangled down from it's face. [Name] wanted to throw up from the sight.

She really need to stop feeling that way.

The dead man growled and drooled as it smacked it's hands on the window. [Name] narrowed her eyes at the thing, and rolled the window down by using the handle on the door. The van was an older version - the windows weren't automatic. [Name] didn't roll it down all the way, just enough for her to stick out her [skin color] colored hand out of it.

She positioned herself on her knees and stuck out her dominate hand with the large knife. The zombie growled and looked up at her hand, smelling the liveliness of it. The blood pumping through her body. It made it even more hungry.

The zombie pried it's hands off of the window and reached up to [Name]'s arm that hung out the window. It's cold hands wrapped around her warm one and just as it was about to yank it down so it could sink it's rotted teeth in it, [Name] brought the knife down into the hairless scalp.

The zombie's limp arms let go of her arm and it fell down to the cement ground without a sound coming out of it's mouth. Relief flashed over [Name]'s body as she pulled her arm back in. It had a small amount of blood on it, but not that much to where she felt grossed out. She let out a sigh then rolled up the window.

That was her first kill.

It wasn't alive anymore, so it shouldn't bug her. But it did. The fact that merely hours ago, that body was alive, healthy, and walking around doing it's job hours ago bugged her. The man probably had a family. "Stop it [Name]," she thought to herself, "it was either you or it."

The driver's door opened causing [Name] to snap out of her sad thought. Levi sat in the black leather seat and slammed the door shut. He looked over at [Name] and noticed the blood on her arm, knife, and on the outside of her window.

"What happened?" He asked but [Name] knew he wasn't actually interested in hearing it.

"It was nothing. I took care of it," [Name] explained and looked forward out of the windshield. Levi gave a small nod and started the van.

And they were off.


	5. More Survivors

They had drove out of the underground parking lot, and that was when [Name] finally got to see how bad the outside was up close. It was terrible; wrecked cars, dead bodies, lost limbs, blood, glass, even the stop lights were flickering. Sparks shot out of the neon light signs that hung down from clubs, bars, and hotels. It was a disaster.

"So where are we going?" [Name] asked twirling her large knife. She liked it; it was useful and light. It wasn't that big either, making it easier to carry around. Levi side glanced at the [eye color] colored girl, but looked forward at the messy road in a split second. His hands tightened around the steering wheel as he made a left turn.

"As far away from here as possible, probably a different town. Until the gas runs out," Levi answered. He honestly didn't know himself. But he knew one thing for sure; that building wasn't safe. Neither was this town.

[Name] nodded but didn't say anything. She didn't want to be in that place anymore either. It was a wreck. As they drove in silence, [Name] would often see a zombie try to chase the van, but only to end up losing sight of it. They were slow; but not too slow. As she watched, she noticed it varied from each corpse. Some were just plain slow, and didn't even make a real attempt at catching the van. Others would actually speed up a little bit to where it looked like a fast - yet slow - speed walk. But none of them could run at all, at least that's what she figured.

It amazed the young adult at how fast this city went to Hell. It only started a few hours ago, and yet there was no sign of living beings in her eyes yet. Except Levi, of course. Levi stayed silent while he drove. [Name] could tell he was stressed, but she didn't understand how he could keep his cool like that. He seemed calm about the situation - it was strange.

"Why are you so calm?" [Name] asked curiously. Levi's facial expression didn't change, instead he kept his eyes on the road and avoided the still cars that sat in the middle of the road.

"That's the only thing I can do at the moment," he explained turning the wheel to the right. [Name] sighed and rested her head on her right hand and stared out the window. She watched the buildings go by slowly as Levi managed to squeeze through the sitting cars in the road. [Name] stared at a white building that had wood boarded up on this windows in confusion. There were big bold letters on the front of the building that said 'Pharmacy.'

She decided to ignore it, know that people had probably already raided it and ran off. But right when she moved her attention somewhere else, there was a loud scream from the direction of the Pharmacy. It was a girl scream, and after that there was shouting that sounded like a male. [Name]'s eyes widened and she turned to a concentrated Levi.

"There's people in there!" [Name] exclaimed pulling out her knife. Levi continued to ignore her as he tried getting through the mess of cars. [Name] frowned.

"We have to help them!" she said raising her voice. Realizing that Levi wasn't going to do anything, [Name] let out a huff and put her hand on the door handle. Levi's hand reached and grabbed her arm before she could open the door, "Don't."

[Name] gave him a look mixed with confusion and unbelievable. "What? No," she said shaking his hand off; but it didn't work, his grip was like iron.

"Listen. There isn't anymore screams. They're probably already dead," Levi said. He was right, there weren't anymore screams. All there was, was the sound of the engine and distant moans of the zombies trapped in the buildings. [Name] sighed knowing he was probably right. Those people who screamed only seconds ago were probably just a walking corpse now.

And she couldn't do anything about it.

"You're right," [Name] sighed letting go the the handle. Levi let go of her arm and stared at the now saddened girl. He didn't understand why she was upset; it's not like she actually knew the people. To him, it was just another death. Another life gone, and another body taken hostage by this terrible disease.

Levi averted his eyes way from the upset girl and back to the crowded road. "Damn, why couldn't they have parked before they died?" Levi asked himself. He was frustrated, there were several cars just sitting in the middle of the road. He obviously knew that it wasn't necessarily their fault - the owners of the vehicles - but it annoyed him nonetheless.

The silence in the van was once again interrupted by a scream that came from - you guessed it - the Pharmacy. [Name]'s eyes widened in surprise and she turned to glare at Levi. "You liar! I'm going," [Name] said opening the door without a second thought.

"[Name] don't be stupid!" Levi shouted at her, but she was already in front of the Pharmacy, and out of earshot. Levi sighed an closed his eyes from annoyance.

"Stupid girl," he muttered opening the driver's door and stepping out into the warm weather. He pulled out both of her clean, sharp blades and stalked over to the determined girl.

"I can't get it!" [Name] exclaimed when she was Levi walking over to her. Levi glanced at the door then back to her. "Because it's probably locked brat," Levi said with a matter-of-fact tint to his voice. [Name] rolled her eyes then tried kicking the door down. It didn't budge; but it sure made her foot hurt.

"It always works in the movies," [Name] whined rubbing her hurt foot. Levi rolled her blue-silver eyes and kicked the door. The door fell down on the ground of the tiled Pharmacy with a loud noise. The noise obviously grabbed the unnecessary attention was the dead. "Fuck!" [Name] said loudly as the zombies turned around from the 'employee's only' door and started walking towards them.

"Do you regret leaving the van now?" Levi asked getting into position with his swords. [Name] blinked then shook her head, "Not at all. I'm not letting innocent people die without trying to help."

Levi glanced at the now confident girl as she stabbed the closest zombie in the head. She then ripped the blades out and continued to stab the next corpse in the side of the skull. The short man was surprised - he didn't expect a weakling like her to be so.. aggressive. She swung her large blade swiftly, and was fast at pulling it out of the dead's heads to strike another.

Levi blinked away from the now serious girl and sliced the man zombie's head off swiftly. [Name] glanced over at him and frowned. "How come you got two swords?" she asked, obviously not happy he got the better choice of weapons. Levi ignored her and continued to kill the already dead. "Just shut up! There's about twelve more, you think you can handle half?" Levi asked as he kicked the feet under a overweight zombie then brought one of his swords down in it's head. [Name] glanced at the other slow walking zombies and nodded, "I can try."

That was enough for Levi to continue the small rampage on the dead. [Name] jabbed her knife into the head of an already dead woman then went to pull it out but it was stuck. [Name]'s eyes widened as she was the last zombie in the room stalk over to her. Each step it go closer. [Name] breathed and tried yanking out her stuck knife, but it wouldn't come out. She had pierced the skull deeply, and the blade of the knife was caught on a piece of hard tissue of the brain.

The zombie's arms reached out to her, but just as it was about to grab her [skin color] arm and bite into it, a sword went through it's fat neck so quickly [Name] wasn't actually sure that it happened. But she was sure when the zombie's head slowly slid off it's body, and the body fell down to the ground. [Name] let out a sigh of relief and pulled out the knife.

"Thanks," she said looking at Levi. Levi nodded then looked at the 'employee's only' door that the zombie's were crowding earlier.

"Now let's see who was screaming," Levi trialed off and walked over to the blue and white door. He gripped his right hand around the silver knob and turned it.

Inside the small break room sat two people huddled in the corner of the room. They both had matching uniforms on, and [Name] assumed that they worked here by from the white shirts they wore that had bloodstains on them. The boy was skinny and bald and he was holding onto the girl for dear life, while the girl had brown hair with a red tint in it pulled into a ponytail and was eating a bag of chips.

The room fell silent as the four young adults stared at each other wordlessly.


	6. Arguing

The silence was broke by the sound of chips crunching. All eyes darted over to the pharmacy girl as she slowly - and shamelessly - chewed on the potato chip. Once she noticed the three sets of eyes on her, she quickly swallowed the fattening food and allowed a deep blush onto her cheeks. Levi's eyes glared into the girl's soul.

"How can she be eating at a time like this?" He thought as his eyes pierced hers.

The boy was the first one to speak up. "U-um, thank you for saving us. My name is Connie and this is Sasha," the boy - Connie - said and motioned his left hand to the girl. The girl, Sasha, flushed then slowly lifted her right hand and gave a shy wave, "Yeah, thank you so much! We'd probably be goners by now!"

"I'm starting to think that would've been a better idea," Levi replied coldly. The two young adults on the floor flushed and sat there wordlessly. [Name]'s eyes widened and she slapped Levi's arm, "Levi!"

Levi shrugged his broad shoulder and rolled his blue-gray eyes. "My bad, it would've been a better idea."

[Name]'s eyes narrowed at the emotionless man, but quickly changed as she turned to the two survivors. "I'm [Name] and this asshole over here is Levi," [Name] said with a smile on her face and a hand stuck out to Sasha. Sasha smiled back at her kindly and accepted her offer then grabbed her hand. [Name] pulled Sasha off the ground easily, and then went over to Connie but he waved her off saying he was fine.

"Do you guys work here?" [Name] asked raising an eyebrow. Connie scratched the back of his neck and sighed.

"Yeah, we were both working the front counter when all the sudden this man walks in and starts.. eating people," Connie said it like he didn't believe it himself. [Name] offered him a sad smile and gave a small nod.

"What is your plan?" [Name] asked while Levi pushed something in front of the broken door to prevent zombies from coming in.

"Plan?" Sasha asked confused and gave [Name] a questioning look. [Name] frowned.

"Yeah, him and I are planning on trying to find town that isn't overrun by these things, what about you? What are you guys going to do?" [Name] asked. Levi walked around wordlessly throwing bottles of pills and medical supplies into his black backpack. Connie and Sasha looked at each other with blank faces.

"U-Um we don't-" Sasha struggled to say, but Connie cut her off.

"We don't really have a plan.." Connie said with a soft - yet embarrassed - voice as he trailed off. [Name]'s [eye color] eyes softened and she looked at the two with sad eyes. Then an idea popped up in her head, and made her face brighten up.

"What don't you guys tag along with us?" [Name] asked excitedly, but her excitement was quickly put to ease when Levi finally spoke up.

"No way. Not happening," Levi growled walking up behind the [hair color] haired girl and unzipping her backpack then shoving supplies in it until it was full. [Name]'s face fell and she quickly turned around.

"What? Why not?" She asked, her [eye color] eyes shooting cold daggers into his face.

"We don't need anymore people. I already have you to babysit," Levi said coldly and showed no expression. [Name]'s mouth opened but she quickly shut it and smack Levi upside the head.

"What the hell?!" Levi exclaimed pushing her arm down.

"We can't just leave them here!" [Name] argued.

"We've already helped them out enough," Levi said with gritted teeth. [Name] looked up at him and got closer to where they could feel each others breath on one another. Levi stood there clam; while [Name] was angry.

"So? The dead are walking around! You can't just leave two people defenseless!" [Name] said raising her voice.

"Will you keep your voice down, I don't want to attract any unwanted attention," Levi said calmly looking down at the angered girl. Connie and Sasha awkwardly watched from the side as the two argued.

"Levi, do you even have a heart?" [Name] asked coldly and placed a hand over his chest.

"Of course I do, idiot." Levi said smacking her hand away then glaring at her.

"Then let them come with us," [Name] whispered slowly in his ear. Connie and Sasha were beyond confused by now - [Name] and Levi were just arguing and raising their voices and now they can't even hear what they're saying.

"Fine. They can. Just shut up about it and leave me alone," Levi sighed and pushed [Name] away from his built body. [Name]'s eyes widened with joy and she turned around to the two survivors they saved with a wide grin on her face.

"Looks like you're coming with us!"


	7. Flashback

A large smile spread across Sasha's crumb covered face and she lunged towards [Name]. Sasha's long arms wrapped around [Name]'s short body as she repeated the words 'thank you' over and over again into [Name]'s chest. [Name] smiled softly and gave an awkward pat on Sasha's back. "Yeah, no.. problem," [Name] said shyly and tried to pry off the potato-loving female. But that only made Sasha's arms tighten. [Name]'s face started becoming red from the lack of oxygen, causing Connie to walk over and pry Sasha off himself.

"I think you're suffocating her," Connie said with a chuckle and pulled off the red-brunette girl. Sasha grinned and scratched the back of her head, "Heh, sorry."

"Since you two are tagging along, make yourselves useful and find bags to put all this stuff in," Levi said walking over to the trio. Connie and Sasha blinked then nodded, rushing in the back of the small store to find bags. "I can't believe an idiot like you talked me into this," Levi muttered walking to the front of the store. [Name] frowned and followed him.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She asked crossing her arms over her chest. Levi rolled his silver-blue eyes and turned to the now mad female.

"It means, you're annoying and you are a handful to take care of," Levi said coldly. His eyes seemed bored, as if staring at her wasn't boring enough for the short man.

"I never said you had to take care of me," [Name] fought back. Levi stared at her with emotionless eyes.

"Really? Where would you be right now if we never met?" Levi asked raising an eyebrow. She would be dead - and her body would still be moving and attempting to kill other innocent people. [Name] opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the other female in the small building.

"You guys fight like a married couple," Sasha snickered holding up a backpack and a small bag. Levi didn't look at the talkative girl, he just rolled his eyes as a blush crept onto [Name]'s cheeks. "I only just met him today!" [Name] exclaimed grabbing the small bag from Sasha's possession. Sasha rolled her eyes and started throwing random medicine into her backpack.

Connie was still in the back, he too had his own backpack and was filling it with food that the other employees kept back there for when they got hungry. Most of it was cheap fattening food - but it was still better than nothing. He himself still couldn't believe the situation. That dead bodies were eating the live ones. Chills were sent down his spin as he remembered how it all started in his eyes.

It was just like any other day, Connie and Sasha were the only ones on duty that day because their other coworker - Molly - had gone home early claiming she felt sick. She had asked both working coworkers to cover for her, and they both agreed seeing it wouldn't do any harm to stay at the store a little bit longer after their shifts ended. Connie had known Sasha since high school; they had both moved to California after they graduated, which was only about a year ago. They got an apartment together - it was small but it was big enough for just the two of them. They were best friends; but over the years Connie had become more attached to Sasha - crush wise.

He stood there at the cash register thinking about how if he confessed his feelings, their wonderful friendship would be ruined. He didn't want to take the large risk and decided he'd keep his mouth shut - knowing that it would be painful for him to see her with other men, he signed up for a dating website. It was like any other cheesy dating site - you fill out your information and make sure to put what you see in a girl. As he was typing out his information, the bell that hang from the top of the glass door rang. Sasha was in the back sorting through the medicine and other supplies that had arrived earlier that morning, so that left Connie in charge of the whole store. Without looking up from his touchscreen phone, Connie said in a bored voice, "Welcome to the Pharmacy how may I help you?"

He was obligated to say that to every person who walked through that door. Even if they didn't actually have a prescription, and they only wanted to by any of the other items that sat on the few rows of shelves. The person didn't answer, but Connie didn't find it strange in any way. It happened a lot - so it didn't seem funny to him that this person didn't reply. They probably just wanted to get their stuff, buy it, then leave. It happened basically everyday.

After the few moments of silence, the person let out a growl. It was inhuman - like an animal or something. This caught Connie's attention, and he quickly filled out the last pieces of information on the corny dating site, but before he could look up a feminine scream came from behind the buzz-cut haired man. Connie immediately turned around - completely forgetting about the strange growl the customer had let out - and saw a scared looking Sasha. She had her hands up in weak fist against her chest, wide eyes, and if he looked closely he could see her body shaking.

"What happened now?" Connie asked rolling his eyes. Just the other day, Sasha came out from the back screaming, and the reason?

A spider.

Sasha slow pointed a shaky finger at something behind Connie, but nothing came out of her mouth. It was like she was too scared to even speak. Connie gave her a questioning look then turned around, and he, too, shouted. There wasn't just one customer; there were over fifteen.

And they were not normal customers.

Their skin was sickly pale, you could see the blue veins underneath it. Blood covered all of them; one even had it's intestines hanging out of it's stomach. But even that didn't cause Sasha to lose her abnormal hunger.

"What the hell?!" Connie asked raising his voice and taking slow steps back. The usual hospital smelling pharmacy now stunk of death and the metallic smell of blood. The inhuman creatures shuffled slowly towards the two scared employees with outstretched arms. Quickly, Connie grabbed onto Sasha's arm and pulled her into the break room. The room was small; but yet again, there usually were only up to four people working at the same time. In the room, there was a small table with two chairs. There was also a mini fridge and a small counter that had a microwave and coffee maker on it. Above it, there were two cabinets.

Both Connie and Sasha backed up in the back corner of the room. Connie was holding onto Sasha shaking, and Sasha did the same to him. "Wait a minute," Sasha said releasing her arms from Connie. She stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out one of those vending machine chip bags. And of course - it was potato chips.

The first time Connie had met Sasha, she had stole his potato at school. Ever since that day, they became best friends, and Connie never questioned her strange love for potato's.

Everyone has there weird food craving.

There was pounding at the door; and they both knew that it was those things. Sasha ripped open the bag and pulled out a chip and offered it to Connie. "How can you be eating at a time like this?!" Connie shouted. Sasha stared at him then shrugged. "If I'm going to die I want to enjoy my last meal," Sasha said tossing the chip into her mouth. Connie rolled his eyes at her stupidity and closed his eyes and tried blocking out the pounding on the door.

After that, [Name] and Levi had saved them. It was a miracle. Connie and Sasha had both thought that would be the end for them, but those two showed up and saved them from facing death in the eyes. Connie sighed and threw the last water bottle into his bag. If only they hadn't agreed to cover for Molly, they would've been home when that happened. Not were people could just walk in and try eating them. Connie zipped up his bag and walked back out to the front to see the others waiting.

"Ready to go?"


	8. Rotten Potatoes

The four survivors walked out of the now emptied Pharmacy and into the mess of a street. The large white van that [Name] and Levi had drove to this part of town sat still in between two blue cars. [Name] had given Sasha her axe, and Connie her hammer so they'd have at least some protection. Levi refused to give them anything, and since [Name] was too nice of a person, she ended giving them weapons. Sasha had grabbed for the axe immediately 'cause supposedly Sasha lived in the country when she was younger and her father had taught her how to hunt with different types of weapons - but honestly she just thought having the axe made her look more bad ass than Connie.

"Is that your guys van?" Connie asked as they walked over to it. [Name] nodded, "Yeah. There's three seats in the back, so just throw the extra bags behind it." Connie nodded and pushed open the backseat door. Like [Name] had said, there were three seats. There was also a large space behind it that could easily fit a bed. Overall - the van was pretty big.

Sasha and Connie climbed in the back and tossed the two extra bags of medical supplies and food in the back. [Name] had gotten shotgun again, while Levi went back to being the driver of the van. He'd barely spoken since [Name] and him had rescued the two pharmacy workers. It didn't really bother [Name] - actually, she was quite happy considering his strange silence meant no rude and sarcastic remarks of his that she had come to known was his favorite hobby.

Levi started up the engine and started driving to no specific designation. As they drove past the ruined shops and stores, the van was filled with nothing but uncomfortable silence. No one knew what to say - who would? The world was basically over now; there wouldn't possibly be a day where everything would go back to normal. At least, that's what [Name] thought. She couldn't imagine the world recovering over something like this. So many friends and family had been killed from it, the world was nothing but dead now.

At least they didn't have to worry about global warming anymore.

It's funny - everyone had been sure that global warming would be the end of the world. That one day, all the glaciers in the world would melt from the lack of protection around the Earth that was caused by all the chemicals in the air, and overflow the land with water; drowning anything and everything that lived on it. Part of [Name] was glad she didn't have to worry about that; drowning is on her number one scariest death she does not want to happen, aside from burning alive. But now both of those death fears had been replace by the death everyone had been going through since the beginning of the day - to those things.

"What are those things even called?" Connie asked as he watched one of them eat the insides of a corpse in the middle of the sidewalk. It was gross, and had made him lose any appetite he had - if he had any to begin with. [Name]'s eyes traveled to the same monster on the sidewalk then shrugged.

"Honestly, I don't know. I've just been calling them zombies," [Name] sighed.

"Zombies, eh? Not bad. But what about 'The Infected'?" Connie suggested, rubbing his chin to make it look like he was thinking.

"Or maybe, 'the ones of death'?" Connie continued to come up with different names and terms until Sasha interrupted him.

"Ooh! What about the 'rotten potatoes'?" She asked with a smile on her face. Everyone gave her a weird look - even Levi.

"'Oh look over there, it's a rotten potato eating a dead body!' Do you know how fucking stupid that sounds?" Levi asked coldly. [Name] silently laughed at his comment as Sasha frowned. "Sasha, how the heck did you come up with that?" Connie asked giving her a confused look. Sasha shrugged, "They smell like one." Now that made both Connie and [Name] laugh, but they stopped as soon as Levi gave them one of his annoyed glares.

"Where are we even going?" Sasha asked looking out the windshield. They have been driving for hours now, make jokes and having Levi insult them. The cycle just kept repeating itself - one of them makes a stupid joke, the other two laugh, then Levi glares at them and tells them their idiots.

Yep, just like that. Over, and over again.

"I don't fucking know. We're on the fast lane to somewhere," Levi said rolling his steel blue eyes. [Name] sighed and leaned up against the door and stared out the window. They weren't in Los Angeles anymore, but it still looked like Hell wherever they were now.

"Look! There's a sign!" Connie said pointing out the windshield at a sign that was too far to read. [Name] squinted and attempted to read it, but failed. "It's too far to read right now," [Name] sighed. They got closer to the sign, and this time she was able to read it.

"Welcome to Washington!"


	9. Abandoned Gas Station

Okay, so maybe 'a couple of hours' was an understatement. They had been in the car for many, many hours. But with Levi's dangerous speed, they had arrived at a different place rather quickly.

"I can't believe we're in Washington.." Sasha trailed off as she jumped out of the van and onto the gravel that sat on the side of the worn down road. All their joints were stiff from sitting in that van for so long, they had stopped at an abandoned gas station - or at least it looked abandoned. It was one of those gas stations that looks like it's been there for years, just sitting on the side of the road completely blocked by overgrown grass and trees.

"I'm going to check out that gas station to see if there's anything in it," [Name] said after she had stretched out her muscles. "I'll go with you," Levi said walking beside her. [Name] raised an eyebrow, "I thought you were mad at me for calling you shorty in the van."

Levi turned to glare at her so [Name] just put her hands up in defense. "Make yourselves useful and keep watch on our stuff," Levi ordered looking at Connie and Sasha. They both nodded and put their backs up against the van with their arms crossed. They had even tried to put the 'bodyguard' face on, but they both ended up failing and laughing. Levi rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Idiots.." He mumbled and started walking in the thigh high grass. [Name] followed him and tried to resist the urge to scratch her legs til they bled. The grass tickled them nonstop, and it made it feel like bugs were crawling all over her. All she wanted to do was scratch them then rinse them down with a hose or something.

[Name] suddenly envied Levi for wearing pants.

After they walked through the itchy thigh high grass, they finally were right in front of the dusty building. "Filthy," Levi muttered in disgust. [Name] rolled her eyes, "You are a clean freak. Who would've guessed."

Levi turned and glared at her, but she only glared back. He scoffed and pulled out both of his swords, ready to attack anything that could be inside the supposedly abandoned gas station. They walked towards it was soundless steps, but both instantly stopped when they heard something get knocked over. [Name]'s eyes widened and she looked worriedly to Levi. Levi stayed calm though, but his shoulders tensed slightly.

He turned around and put a finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet. [Name] guessed it was one of Them, but how could it have gotten in there in the first place? Wasn't it supposed to be abandoned?

[Name] pushed her curious questions aside and followed slowly behind a ready-to-fuck-you-up Levi. There was another crash from inside, then the sound of someone whispering. [Name] raised an eyebrow as the voice got louder - voices got louder. "I think there are people in there," [Name] whispered to Levi.

"Possibly, but it could also be someone changing into one of Them," Levi whispered back. He was right - he was always right - that could be a possibility. [Name] hasn't seen anyone change into one of Them, and she didn't plan on it either. She couldn't imagine watching something like that.

It'd probably look painful.

Levi's hand hovered over the handle, but before he pulled it open he turn around. "Make sure you have your gun ready," He whispered. [Name] nodded and lifted her gun like in the shows - up to your chest and pointed towards the sky.

"One," Levi started.

"Two," [Name] continued.

"Three."


	10. How They Turn

An eerie silence fell upon the five young adults in the abandoned run-down gas station. [Name] had her gun pointed at a blonde haired boy - she had actually thought he was a girl at first glance - and her knife was threatening to press against the other male stranger's throat. She had his head trapped in her arm brace and the knife was only an inch away from piercing his tan skin. While the other boy simply put his hands up in surrender as [Name] pointed the loaded gun at him.

Levi had both of his swords in an 'x' position around an black haired girl's throat, and was giving her a death glare because she had a sharp knife barely pressing against his stomach. In the middle of the store, there was a really injured male squirming around. It was obvious he was the one who knocked over the shelves and caused all the noise. He was coughing up blood, and his skin was sickly pale - like that one woman that [Name] and Levi had saw in the Survey Corps building.

"L-Look guys, we d-don't want any trouble!" The blonde one said nervously while closing his eyes shut. [Name] could see the sweat stains starting to form on his shirt.

"Levi, what do you think?" [Name] asked, not moving her eyes away from the blonde man. Levi's eyes narrowed at the girl in front of him, "Not sure."

"Our friend is seriously hurt! We have to help him! Let up go!" The brunette shouted at [Name] and started squirming in her arm. [Name] glared at him and tightened her grip. "Stop struggling," She growled while moving the knife closer to the boy's neck. His sea green eyes looked up at the [h/c] haired girl with a glare. "What's wrong with you?! I need to help him!" He shouted at her. [Name] really wanted to allow him to help his friend - but she didn't know these people. They had weapons and she didn't know if they were a threat or not. [Name] glanced over at Levi - asking for his opinion - and he came her a curt nod. She sighed and loosened her arm, allowing him to run over to his friend.

The boy crouched down next to the man on the floor. It looked as if he were having a seizure, and he was still coughing up a lot of blood. [Name] looked over the man on the floor, he had short blonde hair with sideburns - but the rest of his face was covered in his own blood.

"Thomas, stay with me!" The brunette said, his eyes filled with worry. He held onto his friend's - Thomas - blood covered hand. [Name] could have sworn she was a tear fall down from the brunette's face. Even she was slightly concerned. It was strange. Did this man have epilepsy? If he did - wouldn't it be white foam coming out of his mouth, and not blood?

"What's wrong with him? Does he have epilepsy?" [Name] asked, not bothering to move towards the two. The brunette shook his head. "No. He doesn't have any health problems. I don't know what's wrong," He explained. Suddenly, the man stopped all at once. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, making it so all you saw was white. The three strangers gasped, and the brunette's mouth fell open. He frowned then put two of his fingers against Thomas' throat; checking for a pulse.

The brunette slowly took his fingers off then let his hands fall at his sides. "He's gone," He said sadly while looking down at the blood covered tiled floor.

"Eren, it's o-okay," said the blonde that [Name] had her gun pointed at.

"No it's not Armin! Because of these people, we didn't get to save him in time!" The brunette - Eren - shouted angrily. Levi turned his gaze to Eren and glared at him.

"From what I can tell, he was like that before we showed up. And if your friend wouldn't have made such loud noise, we probably wouldn't have had to do this," Levi said coldly, yet calmly. Eren opened his mouth to say something, but a inhuman growl came from Thomas' dead body. Everyone's eyes flickered over to the dead body with curiosity.

"Eren.. I thought you said he was dead," said the girl. Her voice was calm, yet at the same time serious. Eren blinked and stared at the now silent body. "I did. He is. I don't know what that was," Eren said. His voice sounded surprised and shocked. Quickly, Thomas sat up and latched his hands onto Eren's plaid shirt. Eren gasped and tried to pry the cold hands off. Thomas was drooling a mixture of drool and blood - just like the other things had when [Name] came in contact with Them.

"Move!" [Name] shouted, pushing Eren out of the way then stabbing Thomas right in the skull. Thomas' body was once again limp and not moving. All three strangers stared at her in shock.

"W-what just happened?" The blonde, Armin, asked staring in disbelief.

"Looks like your friend turned into one of Them," Levi explained, finally removing his swords from the black haired female. Eren frowned, "What do you mean 'turned into one of Them'?!"

Levi sighed with annoyance, "Isn't it obvious? Or do I have to spell it out, brat?" The girl that stood behind him glared daggers into his back, but it seemed the Levi didn't notice. Or he just didn't care. Either one would be believable.

Eren stayed silent, which caused Levi to groaned inwardly. "He turned into one of the things that have been, oh I don't know, eating people?" Levi said, the sarcasm basically dripping off of his words. Before Eren could speak, [Name] opened her mouth.

"Do you know what happened to him? That could be the reason," [Name] asked. She herself was curious. This way she could avoid becoming one of them like Terra did. Eren shook his head, not knowing if anything had happened.

"I saw one of those things bite him when we were escaping.." Armin said quietly with his head down. "B-But I didn't think much of it!" He said right after and lifted his head up quickly.

"It must be the bite then," Levi said. "W-Wait! You can't be positive that's it!" Eren argued.

"It's most likely. The things bite into someone and whatever made them that way goes into the person. Then the person dies and comes back as one of them. It makes sense if you think about it," [Name] said while tapping her chin. It did make sense, it would explain why the zombies wanted to eat them so much. To spread their disease and eat at the same time.

"It does make sense, Eren." Armin agreed with a sigh.

"Armin, you're the one of the smartest people in our college! Do you really think that's what's happening?" Eren asked. Armin nodded. "Just think about it. Thomas got bit, then died, and came back as one of Them. We just saw it with our eyes. If that wasn't the case, then why are we all still alive?" Armin asked. Eren looked down, not knowing the answer himself.

"I guess it's possible. But why is this happening? How did it even start in the first place?" Eren asked looking up from the ground.

"No one knows. But it's obvious things aren't going to go back to normal. You guys from Washington?" [Name] asked, looking back and forth from the three survivors. They all nodded.

"Yeah, it's like hell up there. We were planning on going to California and find a safe place," Armin explained.

"Might as well get that plan out of your head. It's just as bad down there. We just came from Los Angeles," Levi stated crossing his arms.

"Is it like this everywhere?" [Name] asked, even though she knew none of them knew the answer to that. They all stayed silent.

"Well I'm Eren, and these two are Armin and Mikasa," Eren said, pointing at the other two people. [Name] nodded, "I'm [Name] and this is Levi. Sorry for.. well doing what we did. At first we thought you guys were zombies."

"Zombies?" Mikasa asked raising an eyebrow. [Name] scratched the back of her neck, "Heh, yeah. I kind of just started calling them that."

"Well I like it," Eren piped up. "Is it just you three?" Levi asked. They all nodded. "There were others of us. Mina and Samuel, but we lost them while escaping from our college," Armin explained with a sigh, "is it just you two?"

[Name] shook her head, "No. We have two others guarding our van up on the road. We were planning on getting away from California, but it seems like Washington is also infected."

"Can we come with you?" Mikasa suddenly asked, her expression not changing. "Mikasa! You can't just ask them that! We just met them!" Eren scolded. "I don't care. They seem like they can be trusted, and I'm sure they have supplies," Mikasa said blandly.

"No."

"Yes."

[Name] and Levi glared at each other. "We're not taking in anymore idiots," Levi said coldly. "Their not idiots. Plus, look at those two large bags over there. I'm sure they're full of stuff," [Name] stated pointing at the bags. Armin nodded in agreement, "They do. It's all we could collect from our college and this place."

"See?" [Name] challenged. Levi shut his eyes and mental rolled them and groaned inwardly. "Fine. But don't expect me to be nice about it." [Name] smiled, "Don't worry, you're never that nice anyways."

Levi opened his eyes and glared at her. [Name] put her arms up in defense, "Sorry, but you know it's true."

At moments like this, Levi actually wished he never saved her.


	11. Idaho

"So it's the bite?" Connie asked after [Name] explained it to him. [Name] sighed and nodded. "That just means if you get bitten, I'm going to have to kill you," Levi said coldly, but [Name] could see the smirk that he did seconds after. She narrowed her eyes at him, but he simple ignored it.

"So we're like food to zombies?" Sasha asked and raised her eyebrows. "Basically," [Name] confirmed which made Sasha frown. All five of them - [Name], Levi, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin - had walked back to the van after [Name] and Levi agreed that they could tag along. [Name] had introduced Sasha and Connie to the newcomers and they seemed to have no problem with it.

Levi was still mad though.

When things went bad, he had planned to travel solo. But instead he had heard a scream and darted to it - he still didn't know why he did, but he did. And he ended up saving some random girl who was too kind for her own kind. While she was easy going and accepting anyone into their group, Levi had been watching each of them carefully and closely.

People can become really greedy at desperate times like this.

"Where do we even go now?" Connie sighed and rested his head on the side of the white van. Three pairs of eyes - [Name], Sasha, and Connie - turned to Levi for an answer. It was like he was the teacher and they were the students; they looked up to him, respected his judgment, but still hated him at the same time.

"Why the fuck are you guys looking at me?" Levi asked harshly.

"Well, if California is already infected, we go east?" Armin suggested. [Name] was right - he was the smart one. He looked like that kind of person to her.

"I agree. I doubt there's anything here for us anyway," Mikasa said walking into the small circle of survivors. Eren nodded in agreement. "I think he's right, we should probably try to find a place where it's actually safe," [Name] said while looking around at her surroundings. They were still in the middle of nowhere, but that didn't mean it was safe.

Levi rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Just get your annoying asses in the van."

After many awkward, annoying, sleepless, cruel hours the group of survivors arrived in a different state - Idaho. When they first entered the state, it looked the same as the other three (California, Oregon, Washington), rundown, bloody, and just a mess. They all had thought that this state had been infected too; which it probably was.

"Damn, this place doesn't look any better either," Eren said as he stared out the windshield. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Do you guys think that all of America is infected?" Armin asked. [Name] shrugged, "Not sure. Probably, probably not."

"There might be somewhere for survivors like us," Sasha said with a shrug. All their plans of escaping the terrible mess vanished, they didn't know exactly what to do anymore. "What do we do now?" Connie groaned and buried his head in his hands. Nobody said anything; because nobody knew the answer.

What do they do now?


	12. Out of Gas

"Shit!" Levi exclaimed as the van slowly came to a stop. "What is it?" [Name] asked worriedly. Levi sighed frustrated and rested his head in his hands. "We're out of gas," Levi mumbled into his hands. Everyone's eyes widened slightly once the words left his mouth. They were now stuck in the middle of an infected town. Isn't that just great? "Out of gas? You're kidding me.. right?" Eren asked. Levi lifted his head up from his hands and glared at the brunette boy. "I wouldn't lie about this dipshit," Levi said harshly, causing Mikasa to glare at him. During the long hours of when they were all stuck in the moving van, they had all gotten to know each other better - except Levi who stayed silent the whole ride. [Name] had learned that Sasha and Connie were best friends and were from across the country, and that Mikasa was Eren's adopted sister and that Armin was their best friend. They had learned a little bit about her, too.

[Name] groaned and leaned her head back. "We're stuck in the middle of an infected city. What else could go wrong?" She asked to herself. "Well, we could all die," Connie suggested. Everyone glared at him so he put his hands up in defense, "Sorry, she asked." Everyone rolled their eyes at him then looked away. None of the spoke, they were all still processing that the were stuck in a random city. [Name] rubbed her eyes just as two bloody hands slammed down on her already bloodstained window. Everyone jumped - except Levi who remained calm for some reason - and stared at [Name]'s window. [Name] gulped as the zombie pressed it's face against the glass.

It's the underground parking lot all over again.

"Not again," [Name] whined and rolled down the window enough to be able to stick her knife and hand out. Armin's eyes widened, "[Name]! What are you doing?!" [Name] rolled her [e/c] eyes and brought the knife down into the dead's skull, immediately it went limp. "That," [Name] said and pulled out the knife. The muscles in her arms tightened when she did so, and it actually surprised Levi that she actually had any. [Name] looked down at her blood covered knife and cringed before wiping it on the bottom of the seat.

"I think I see a mall!" Sasha exclaimed and pointed at a large building that was down the street they were on. Everyone looked up and stared at it. "It might be," [Name] shrugged then opened the door.

"[N-Name], what are you doing?" Armin asked with wide concerned eyes. [Name] stepped out of the useless van and walked to the very back. She opened the large doors and started throwing the extra bags at everyone. "Everyone needs to at least have one bag," [Name] explained and gave bags to Mikasa, Eren, and Armin. They all caught the bags easily and secured them on their bodies right away. Levi stepped out of the van and pulled out his two swords when he saw one of Them running towards him. Eren's eyes widened when he saw it running at the raven haired man, "Levi watch out!"

Levi rolled his eyes and simply cut the zombie's head in half; right down the middle. Eren stared with his mouth ajar. Levi turned around and glared at the shocked boy, "I can handle myself."

Eren blinked then quickly looked away from Levi's glare. Levi sighed and looked down at his bloodstained weapons. "Gross." He muttered then started wiping it off with his handkerchief. [Name] slammed the back doors shut and walked over to Levi, her eyes going right to his moving hands that were cleaning off the blades.

"Really?" [Name] asked while rolling her eyes. Levi glanced up and narrowed his eyes at her. She frowned then put her hands up in defense, "Sorry, clean freak." [Name] chuckled and turned her back to face him while he mentally cut her up into pieces with his clean swords.

[Name] walked over to the group who stood outside the van nervously. Sasha had her ax, Connie had the hammer, Mikasa had a knife, Eren has a crowbar, and Armin had a metal pipe. "Looks like you all have at least some type of protection.." [Name] mumbled as Levi silently walked behind her.

"Your weapons will most likely do the job, just stab them in the heads enough to get to the brain and they'll die," Levi explained. All eyes focused on him. "How do you know that'll work?" Connie asked with a raised eyebrow and worried face. Levi rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Do you think I would be alive if it didn't?" Connie shut up after that.

"And try not to make noise or be to loud. From what I've seen, they're attracted to noise if anything," Levi continued. [Name] nodded in agreement, "So don't use guns unless it's absolutely necessary." The group nodded causing [Name] to smile.

"Let's go now," Levi ordered and walked past the survivors in the direction of the mall. [Name] grinned, "Remember, no noise." Everyone nodded and started following Levi to the mall.


	13. Mall

The group of survivors eventually made it to the large mall without much problems - okay, actually one large problem.

They had tried their best to be quiet and unnoticed, until Connie dropped his hammer which created a loud sound in the silent area. Everyone stared at him with wide eyes, and Levi glared at him as hard as he could. Connie gulped and bent down to grabbed his hammer, but someone's feet was already next to it by the time he was crouched down and looking at it. The shoes at blood on them, and the jean's on the person were stained with red and torn up.

Connie's breathing stopped and he slowly lifted his head, scared of what was standing in front of him. When he had fully lifted his head, drool with blood mixed in it splattered on his face. This wasn't just someone - it was one of Them; a zombie. It was female, and it's head was lying on it's shoulder. It's neck looked messed up and just gross to look at. When the person was alive and normal, they had probably broken their neck trying to get away from whatever infected them.

So now, the zombie's head just rolls around grossly. Connie opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His mouth was closed shut out of fear and shock. The others stared back at him with wide eyes, but they couldn't do anything because they too were surrounded by zombies.

"And this is why I didn't want anyone else to join," Levi said smugly to [Name]. They were surrounded by zombies, and were back-to-back. [Name] growled. "This isn't the time to argue," she said and held up her knife as the zombies started closing in on them. Sasha and Eren were trapped together, and Mikasa and Armin were. Mikasa kept looking over at Eren with worried eyes, but surprisingly to [Name] he and Sasha worked well together. Sasha was a pro with the ax, it almost looked like she was a lumberjack that chopped down trees everyday with the way she was smashing the dead's skulls with it.

Eren kept beating their heads with his crowbar, over and over again until they stopped moving completely. The first hit he would do, he would put all his power in it and used the curve to pierce their skulls. If that didn't kill them, then he would beat them until it did then quickly move onto the next one. Mikasa was doing great, like a natural. [Name] assumed that she had taken classes or something, because she was doing what [Name] was but more quickly and efficient. Stabbing them in the head, pulling out the knife, then doing it to another one, over and over again.

Armin, on the other head wasn't doing that great. It didn't matter that much, because Mikasa was obviously killing the majority of them. Armin just hit them in the head with his pipe, and if it didn't kill them he'd hit them again - basically what Eren is doing.

Connie blinked and quickly got his name back in the game. Game. 'Just pretend this is a game. You play them all the time, so it shouldn't be a problem.' Connie gripped the wooden handle of the hammer and hit the zombie with it as hard as he could by using the nail puller side. All of the zombie's movements stopped, which told Connie he had killed it successfully. Connie grinned and looked at the next zombie that was limping towards him. Smirking, he walked up to it and hit it with the hammer on the side of the head - killing it quickly.

[Name] and Levi walked slowly in circles with their backs pressed up against each other. [Name] had her knife ready in one hand, and her other hands were hovering over the small ninja-like knifes that were strapped to her thigh. She knew they'd come in handy sooner or later. Levi had pulled out both of his sharp, clean swords and was also ready to attack. He 'tched' at [Name] at made the first move; he brought both of his swords down on two zombie's heads, killing them instantly.

"Don't tch me," [Name] frowned and stabbed a zombie in the head, then kicked another one in the head as she tried pulling the knife out. She then stomped on the zombie's skull that laid on the ground, and actually killed it. She continued to do this, and sometimes even used her small knifes to kill zombies that go to close while she was already busy killing another. Her aimed was perfect, and it was no doubt that she'd be good at darts. Each small knife landed in the direct center of the zombie's heads.

"Do you play darts or something?" Levi asked after watching her kill another one with a small knife. [Name] shrugged and smirked, "Nope. I'm just that awesome." Levi rolled his head and stabbed a zombie in the head. "I doubt that."

[Name] faked gasped, "What's that supposed to mean?" Levi was about to say a smart ass remark, but someone stopped him from doing so.

"Come on! There's an opening!" Eren shouted, pointing to the small opening. Everyone's eyes traveled to where he was pointing at. It was small, but it they all ran through it together and killed some of the zombies, it would be possible for them to get through and enter the mall. Levi glanced over at [Name], "You ready?"

[Name] nodded and ran through the mess of zombies with everyone else following closely behind her. As they ran through the small opening in the herd of zombies, Levi was cutting through their heads like it was nothing. Him doing that made it even easier to run through. The mall doors grew closer and closer, and soon enough [Name] was face-to-door with it. Without hesitation, she pulled the door open and held it while ushering the others in quickly. Once the last person - Connie - ran through she slammed it shut and Levi moved one of the shop's couches in front of it so they had no chance at getting in, even though [Name] had to pull the door open, not push it inside.

Everyone was leaned up against something or sitting down and panting. They all had blood on them and their weapons, but no one seemed to mind at the moment - even Levi. Eren walked over to Mikasa on the other side of the store, which happened to be a furniture one. [Name] watched them walked out of sight but shrugged it off, Mikasa probably wanted to ask him if he was alright and stuff.

"Mikasa, do you think that the bite is how you get infected?" Eren asked worriedly. Mikasa frowned, "I'm pretty sure. Why are you asking?" Eren gulped and looked down at his arm that was covered by his jacket. Mikasa followed his eyes and looked down at it too. Eren slowly pulled it up to reveal a deep bite. There was no mistake about it, it was a bite alright. The skin surrounding the bite was fine, but had small dots of red around it. It basically looked like a rash surrounding it.

Mikasa's eyes widened. "When did you get that?!" She whisper shouted at him, making sure the others couldn't hear her. Eren pulled his sleeve down and looked at her. "Back in Washington. I was with Thomas when he got bit too. I don't know why I haven't change yet though," Eren said with a shaky sigh. Mikasa furrowed her brows, "If you got that when Thomas got his, you'd be turned too."

Eren sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. What if I turn soon though? Or what if I'm immune?" Eren questioned. If he was immune, he'd be the happiest person alive. Mikasa glanced back at the other, but none of them were staring at the two. "Don't tell anyone else, okay? I'm not going to let them kill you," Mikasa said sternly.

"What if when I turn I kill you?" Eren asked, his voice cracking. "Or if I kill the other?" He added. Mikasa looked him straight in the eyes, "If you turn, I'll turn too." Eren's eyes widened.

"What? Mikasa, you can't just do that!" Eren said, his voice slightly raising. Mikasa cover his mouth with her hand to shut him up. "I can and I will," she said seriously. Eren stared at her with glossy eyes. He didn't want to turn, but he didn't want her to turn even more. But Mikasa made up her mind, and there was no changing it.

Eren sighed, knowing that he'll never with this fight. He looked over out the entrance inside the mall that connected the rest of the mall to the store they were in. He noticed something moving, and when he looked closer at it he noticed it was a limping zombie. It wasn't coming their way, but if there was one of them in the mall, there was more. He turned away and pushed past Mikasa and walked back to the group who was still catching their breaths.

"There's more inside here," Eren said taking a seat next to Connie on one of the couches. Sasha frowned. "Are you serious?" She whined, throwing her head back and closing her eyes. Eren nodded, "Yeah, I saw one walking around when Mikasa and I were looking around the store." Just as he said that, Mikasa walked over to them. She nodded in agreement.

[Name] sighed. She was still worn out from what just happened outside in the street, she wasn't exactly ready to do it again. Levi was calm and wiping the blood off his swords, but was still listening. "Then we have to kill them all," Levi said without looking up. Everyone looked at him with are-you-fucking-serious faces. Connie grinned, "Like in the moving Dawn of the Dead?"

Levi stopped cleaning and looked at Connie with a blank face. "You're fucking stupid," he said then went back to cleaning, "but yes, basically. We clear out this floor and make sure all the entrances are blocked, then we will clear the second floor."

[Name] stood up and slapped her hands together and grinned, "Let's do it. But I swear if there's fucking annoying ass security guys, I'm going to be pissed." Eren laughed at her statement, but nodded in agreement. "Yeah, those guys were total dicks."

Sighing, everyone gave in and started readying up. "Okay, we're going to travel as a group. No straying," Levi ordered. It was obvious who was the leader of the group, Levi was probably the most fit and skilled one. He was also good at creating plans. It had only been more than a day since this all started, and [Name] already looked up to him as a leader. But other than that, he annoyed her and made her want to punch him.

They all nodded and followed Levi out the store and into the center of the mall where everyone walks to get to their favorite stores. [Name] looked around and saw many of her favorite stores, telling herself that once they cleared the mall out, she was going to go to each one of them and try basically everything on that she thought was cute. The best part - it'll all be free.

The group walked down calmly, the only sounds that echoed were their footsteps and the moans of the dead. Eren killed the one he saw from earlier, and Levi and [Name] killed the rest that they saw. Sasha was walking at the back of the group, slightly trailing behind. She heard a small noise from one of the shops they passed and stopped walking. She frowned and looked in it, but saw nothing. Shrugging, she decided it was probably her imagination. But as she started walking again, she heard it again. It was louder, and sounded like multiple voices. Her eyes widened as two cold hands grabbed her shoulders and tried pulling her back. Sasha screamed loudly and tried to pull away.

Everyone turned around to see a struggling Sasha behind held by a zombie, but that wasn't their only problem anymore. Her loud scream attracted attention - a lot of it, too. Coming to her senses, Sasha made a daring move. She held her ax with both hands in between her legs and brought her arms up. If you didn't know what she was planning, you would've thought she was tried her ax herself in the head, not the zombie behind her.

Sasha successfully killed the thing that held her and quickly ran over to her group. Armin's eyes widened as large groups of zombies limped out of the stores. "Not again," he whined holding his pipe up. "Sorry," Sasha said quietly, but no one looked at her. Mikasa glanced down the large walkway at the end of the building. There was a big door and above it was the word 'Arena.'

"There!" Mikasa shouted, pointing at the doorway to the arena. Everyone looked at it and started running towards it. The zombies picked up their pace and were close behind them. There were a lot of them, more than there was on the street. They all ran in the door and locked it. It was dark, but there were no zombies inside. Eren's hands scanned the wall until he found it; the light switch. He flicked it up, and the lights all turned on to reveal a large room. There was a stage, but no seats. Either it was meant to be that way, or they took the seats out to clean or something.

[Name]'s eyes widened as she took everything. On the stage there was three microphones, a few guitars, a keyboard and a drum set. There were also speakers everywhere. "Wow.." [Name] trailed off. Armin nodded in agreement. Connie and Sasha walked out of a storage room that no one had noticed, or even noticed them go in. Connie held up propane tanks, and Sasha held up two bottles of some type of alcohol drink.

"So.. We found these in there. And there's more," Connie said while looking at the things he was holding. [Name] looked at the things they held, and then to the stages. An idea popped up in her head and she grinned widely. Everyone looked at her with confused faces.

"How about we put on a little concert?"


	14. Concert

Everyone stared at [Name] with confused faces, trying to understand what she meant. "What? Concert? What do you mean?" Eren asked. [Name] smirked and looked at the flammable objects in Sasha and Connie's hands.

"Well, we know that they are attracted to sound, right?" [Name] asked, but it sounded more like a statement. Levi stared at her, wondering what her idea was. Everyone nodded, still confused. [Name] smiled, "Both of the things Connie and Sasha found are flammable and will explode. So I was thinking.."

Levi's brain clicked and suddenly her idea became clear to him. To his surprise, it was actually a good idea. "We use those instruments to draw them in and kill them all by using those," Levi explained pointing at the propane tank and alcohol. Connie's face brightened and he smiled widely. "I get it now! We'll make those things.. uh.. what are they called.." Connie said trying to think of the word he was looking for. "Molotov," Armin answered for him. Connie grinned, "Yeah, that!"

"We need cloth for that though," Mikasa said looking around the arena, "and I don't see any around here."

[Name] thought about it for a few seconds become shrugging off her bag and unzipping it. She dug in it for a little bit before pulling out a white tank top that was part of the extra clothing but she had no use for wearing it. "We can use this," [Name] shrugged. Sasha looked at it before grabbing it from [Name]'s hands and ripping it into smaller pieces.

"Yeah, this could work. We just have to stick it in like this," Sasha said and popped the cap off the bottle then shoved the white cloth piece into the bottle but not all the way down, just the top part of it. "And then we light it and throw it," she said and held up the bottle, "wait, does anyone have a lighter?" [Name] and Levi both dug into their bags, knowing that the emergency kit came with lighters for both of them. After finding them in the mess of supplies they pulled them out and flicked them on.

"Yep," [Name] said flicking it back shut and handing it to Sasha. Sasha smiled and grabbed it before shoving it it in her pocket. "Okay, we got that but what about these?" Connie asked holding up the tanks of propane. Levi pulled out the gun from the back of his jeans and held it front of his face, "You shoot it."

Connie's face brightened even more, and his smile got bigger, "This is seriously just like my video games!"

Levi glared at him which made Connie's smile slowly fall and he stared at everyone. They all just looked at him with a blank face. "What? Seriously?" Connie sighed and calmed down.

"We got that part down, but what about the noise? We don't even know if we can play all those instruments," Armin said.

"I can sing some and play the guitar," [Name] shrugged.

"Me too," Levi said blankly.

"I can play the drums," Eren said. Mikasa looked at him with questioning eyes. "Since when?" She asked. Eren frowned and looked away from her. "I taught myself a couple years ago," Eren muttered.

"I can play the drums too!" Connie grinned.

"I know how to play the piano, this keyboard thing shouldn't be that different," Armin said eyeing the keyboard that was connected to a laptop. It must've been like some kind of DJ set.

"So it's settled then. Levi and I guitars, Eren drums, Armin keyboard and Mikasa, Sasha, and Connie will do the killing," [Name] explained. Everyone nodded in agreement, seeing that was probably the best plan. "What kind of music should we play?" Eren asked with a raised eyebrow. [Name] tapped on her chin to think about it.

"Rock. It's loud enough," Levi said crossing his arm over his chest.

"Yeah! And it'll get us pumped up!" Connie yelled from the small room him, Mikasa, and Sasha were in. There was a small noise that was probably Mikasa telling him to shut up and get back to helping them carry everything out. [Name] shrugged, "I don't have a problem with that."

"Me either."

"Yeah, that'll work."

[Name] clapped her hands together, "Alrighty then. We just need to set everything up and put barricades around the stage so none of them can get us." Everyone nodded and went off to get ready for their concert of death.

"I can't believe this is happening," the brunette said wearily as he and his best friend pushed themselves against the metal door. They were both safe when it all started, but then they heard a scream on the first level and all the zombies came out and spotted them. Not, they were trying to shut the door that the zombies were pressing up against.

"I should have never taken this fucking job," the other man said and started pressing against the door even harder, but it still wouldn't shut all the way.

"Nobody knew this would happen, it doesn't have anything to do with the job," the brunette said, trying his best to call his raging best friend down. But it didn't work out that well, his best friend was still pissed off.

"I saw- we saw our coworker get eaten by these things," the light brunette said with a face of hatred. The dark brunette sighed, "I know, Jean. But they would have wanted us to fight back." The other man - Jean - looked at his best friend and gave a tight forced smile.

"You're right, we'll avenge their deaths," Jean smiled and picked up the baseball bat that was laying next to him.

"Is everything ready?" Levi asked and looked up from adjusting the stings on his guitar. [Name] nodded and ran her fingers over the tuned guitar while she tapped on the microphone, "Yeah." Levi smirked and looked over at the large doors attached to the wall on the other side of the room. For the hour they've been in there, the zombies hadn't gone away. They continued to slam onto the doors over and over again. Levi gave a small nod to Sasha and Mikasa. They both nodded back and quickly opened the doors all the way and sprinted back to the stage as the large area quickly flooded with the dead.

Both Mikasa and Sasha jumped onto the stage and Connie quickly put the block back. Mikasa and Sasha held both lighters and a bottle while Connie got ready to throw a propane tank and shoot it with the gun Levi lent him. They all looked at each other, letting each other know they were ready.

[Name] grinned, "Let's get this show started!"

"Do you hear that?" The brunette asked Jean. The pressure on the door slowly started to disappear and the groans of the zombies became distant. Jean furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his friend confusingly, "Marco, does this mall play music through the speakers?"

Marco nodded, "Yeah, but not this kind of music. Plus, it's coming from downstairs, not through the speakers." Jean frowned. 'Who's doing this? And why?'

"Well whoever is doing this is a lifesaver," Jean smiled. Marco nodded and opened the door enough to peek out. "They're not there anymore," Marco said with wide eyes. Jean rushed over to look out the door to see for himself, "No way.." They both opened the door all the way and walked out onto the rest of the second floor. There wasn't a single zombie in sight. Slowly both boys walked over to the stairs and watched as the zombies clumsily walked down them and towards the large doors that the music was coming out of. The person who was singing sounded beautiful, and both boys wanted to know who the voice belonged to.

"Were there seriously this many?" Jean asked in shock as he and Marco watched the zombies all shoved their way through the open doors. Explosions went off, and Jean could've sworn he was fire. Marco looked at Jean, "Do you think we should help them?"

Jean looked over and saw the gun shop then smirked, "It wouldn't hurt to."

[Name] stood in the center of the stage singing into the microphone while strumming her fingers against the guitar. Her voice filled the room and attracted every single zombie's attention. She was singing the song 'Iodine' by Icon For Hire. It was just a random song that everyone knew and could play along to, so she picked it.

"I say I wanna be healthy but I turn up the noise, and the IV drips a steady stream of poison."

Connie threw down a propane tank into the crowd of zombies then shot it seconds later, creating a big explosion in the middle of the room. All the zombies around it died, but it only made room for more and the empty spot was quickly filled back up again causing Connie to groan in frustration.

"I think I'm just in love with the feeling, break my bones so I can feel them healing."

Mikasa lit the end of the white cloth and quickly threw it into the crowd. As soon as it made contact with the hard floor, it caused the surrounding zombies to go up in flames. The smell of burning alcohol mixed in with the smell of death, and let's just say it wasn't a very good mix.

"Crazy's, I believe the medical term when we wanna recover but we don't want to learn. Keep breaking what's been fixed a thousand times, and give me some more of that iodine."

Sasha chucked the flaming bottle and jumped when it exploded. She laughed slightly and then threw another, liking the feeling of doing something she's never done before.

"I can't make reality connect, I push till I have nothing left. But if we want to wake up, why we still singing these lullabies?"

Levi looked over at [Name] who was singing flawlessly. He was actually surprised when she started singing, because she was actually good. Her voice hit all the right notes, and she didn't sing to fast or to slow. She sang along with the music correctly. After she was done sing, Levi would sing something. He didn't want to, but [Name] made it clear that they had to have different people singing so it wouldn't be as tiring.

"I'll run in circles till I crash, one day these steps will be my last, so if we want to wake up, why we still singing these lullabies?"

Eren slammed the drumsticks onto the drums with rhythm. The beat went in harmony with the guitars, creating a good sounding creation of music. And with [Name]'s singing, it all fit together perfectly. After her was Levi, then Eren had to sing. He didn't mind it, Connie would take his place and play the drums while Eren sang. He didn't know what song he was going to do but he knew one thing; it was going to be awesome.

"I say I wanna be happy, but I quickly forget when I sabotage all the good I've got left. Depression's like a big fur coat, it's made of dead things but it keeps me warm."

Armin changed the keyboards keys so that they'd make the hospital noise whenever he pressed on them to go with the theme of the song. Thank to the laptop that was connected to it, it made it easier for him to do it. [Name] sang the chorus then all the guitars and drums stopped, leaving it to Armin to fill in with the music.

"I don't like pain but I bring it to life. I don't like scars but I'm good with a knife. I don't like tears but I'm starting to cry when I realize, I'm destroying my life."

The rock instrumental came back into the song as [Name] continued to sing. Her eyes scanned over the crowd of zombies, imagining it as regular people. It would've been nice - she's always had a pretty good voice. She always got solos in choir, and when she was younger she wanted to be a singer; just like every other little girl did. But of course, her childhood dreams never came true. [Name] finished the song with a guitar note and a small smile. Connie shot a propane tank right as the song ended, and the explosion only made it even more epic - according to Connie that is.

"Nice job [Name]!" Connie shouted from the side of the stage. [Name] smiled at him and blushed slightly. She then traded spots with Levi and smirked at him. He narrowed his eyes at her, "I really do hate you." [Name] smiled widely, "I know, now get singing boy!" Levi glared at her again before telling them he was going to sing 'Cold' by Breaking Benjamin. [Name] laughed, "Of course you'd choose that song." Levi stared at her. "What's that supposed to mean?" [Name] shook her head and smiled. "Nothing."

Levi stared at her for awhile before slowly picking at the strings. The song started off slow and calm before the hardcore part came in then it went back to being mellow.

"Crowded streets are cleared away, one by one. Hollow hero's separate as they run. You're so cold keep your hand in mine. Wise men wonder while strong men die."

[Name] wouldn't admit it, but Levi was hot while he sang and played the guitar. He had his eyes closed as he sang the lyrics to the song, and his fingers ran over the strings gracefully. And his voice - it was low and deep, yet calming and smoothing. [Name] couldn't really place her finger on it, but she liked it. She liked it a lot.

"Show me how it ends, it's alright. Show me how defenseless you really are. Satisfied and empty inside, well that's alright, let's give this another try."

[Name] could've swore she saw him slightly smile as he sang the chorus, but it vanished as soon as it appeared. Mikasa and Sasha continued throwing flaming bottles into the crowd as Connie did his job. The herd of zombies was thinner now, but there were still some flooding into the room. [Name] sighed slightly wondering if they were really going to kill all of them this way.

"If you find your family, don't you cry. In this land of make believe, dead and dry. You're so cold but you feel alive. Lay your hand on me, one last time."

Levi had picked this song for a reason, but he wouldn't tell the others. Other than the fact he actually enjoyed this song - along with many other songs by Breaking Benjamin - it kind of fit the situation a bit. Only certain lyrics of course. Levi continued singing, Eren, Armin, and [Name] continued playing, and the other continued killing. The plan was actually working out well, but none of them knew when it will end. Levi finished his song and Eren got up from the drum set after wiping sweat off his forehead. Levi stared at him like he was roadkill.

"What? Playing the drums is hard work," Eren grinned as he walked over to the mic. Levi scoffed and stood on the other side of Eren while [Name] stayed on his left. Connie grinned and ran over to the drums, obviously excited. Armin walked away from the keyboard and took Mikasa's spot as she took Connie's for something different. Sasha was still having fun throwing flaming bottles.

The girl stopped singing, and seconds after a male voice boomed through the speakers. Jean grinned, knowing the song. "I wonder how many people are in there.." Marco trailed off as he filled the magazine with bullets then inserted it into the machine gun. Jean shrugged, "I don't know. I'm assuming a handful of them. But they had a good idea by doing this. I think they're trying to clear the mall out."

Marco sighed, "Yeah. Let's just hope they don't die in the process. We'd be-"

"Fucked."

"..yeah."

Jean laughed and held his gun with both of his hands as the song changed again.

"Shall we?"

"What song are you going to sing?" [Name] asked with a raised eyebrow. Eren smirked, "'Sarcasm' by Get Scared." Connie laughed from behind them. "Are you serious?" Connie chocked out.

"What? The music video has zombies in it how can I not?!"

Levi glared at the brunette, "Just start singing already." Eren gulped and nodded facing the mic.

"You've got me shaking the way you're talking, my heart is breaking but there's no use crying. What a cyanide surprise you have left for my eyes, if I had common sense I'd cut myself or curl up and die."

Eren sang into the mic with a smile on his face, obviously enjoying it. His voice was smooth and [Name] was surprised he could sing that well. Multiple gunshots from outside the arena made everyone confused. They didn't stop what they were doing, but their attention was turned to the doors as zombie after zombie fell down.

"Sticks and stones could break my bones, but anything you will only fuel my lungs. Don't mind us we're just spilling our guts, if this is love I don't wanna be loved, you pollute the room with a filthy tongue, watch me choke it down so I can throw it up. Don't mind us we're just spilling our guts, if this is love I don't wanna be hanging by the neck before an audience of death."

[Name] laughed at the last few words because it was actually true. They had an audience of death. Zombies kept dying from the entrance, and it was obvious someone else was shooting them. The zombies didn't know who to do after anymore, some were walking towards the people shooting and some were still after [Name] and them. Whoever those people were, [Name] wanted to thank them.

Eren kept singing as Mikasa, Sasha, and Armin kept killing the group of death. The herd was getting thinner now, and it didn't seem like there were anymore of them coming since there were people on the other end.

Another explosion.

More bullet shells fall to the floor.

Another bottle of flaming alcohol and cloth was thrown at the floor.

By now, [Name], Levi, Eren, and Connie were helping with killing the dead now. Levi and Eren kept throwing the tanks in different spots then Mikasa would shoot them and [Name], and Connie could hold two bottles in their hands while Armin and Sasha lit the ends before they threw them into the crowd. The process kept going until they ran out.

"Shit! We ran out!" Eren shouted. What was left of the herd was now going for the people outside. It wasn't that many, but it was still a lot of two people to handle.

"Jean, they're all coming for us!" Marco shouted. Jean scowls and kept shooting, but when he pulled the trigger nothing came out. Jean's eyes widened and he looked down at his gun and started hitting it, praying that something was stuck. But when he tried to shoot again, nothing came out. Suddenly the same thing happened the Marco.

Now they both were out of ammo.

There wasn't even that many zombies coming at them anymore, but they didn't have anything to defend themselves with anymore. Marco's face was covered with fear.

"This is it, we're really going to die," Marco squeaked out.

"What the hell! Did those guys die or something?!" Jean yelled angrily. Not long after the words left his mouth, all the zombies in front of them collapsed. Jean and Marco looked up to see a group of seven. They all stood there with their weapons with grim looks on their faces. Jean's eyes immediately went to the two girls in the front of the group.

"Thank you for saving us. Seriously," Marco said. Jean blinked out of his trance as the [h/c] girl smiled at his best friend, "No problem. What's your names?"

"I'm Marco."

"Jean."

"I'm [Name]," the girl smiled at them and Jean couldn't help but smile back.


	15. Annoyed

Levi glared at the two boys in front of them, mainly at the boy who claimed his name to be Jean. The way he stared at [Name] made him want to throw up - literally. He actually had to force his chewed up and half digested food to go back to his stomach instead of traveling up his throat. The taste it left afterwards caused him to gag slightly, but thankfully no one noticed his little event that just happened.

[Name] smiled kindly at the two males after coming to the conclusion that they didn't pose as a threat. If they did, they wouldn't have helped them out earlier.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Jean finally spoke eyeing the other people in the group.

Sasha and Connie had walked off to make sure that all the zombies were dead; better safe than sorry. Mikasa and Eren were talking away from the group about something, but [Name] couldn't read their lips from where she was standing - not that she had a reason to want to anyways. Armin was tinkering with something [Name] didn't know what was called and Levi was just plain out glaring at Marco and Jean, but mainly Jean.

[Name] rolled her eyes at how he was being. She knew that he knew that she was going to welcome them into their small group, which she was planning to do. After all, they helped them out.

"Well, what's more cliche than clearing out a mall during a zombie apocalypse?" [Name] joked with a raised eyebrow. Jean and Marco chuckled at her answer.

"It is pretty cliche," Marco agreed with a small shrug and not. [Name] giggled and shook her head. She eyed their clothing and raised an eyebrow at them.

"You two worked here?" [Name] asked looking at the logo on their shirts. They both nodded shyly.

"Yeah," Marco said with a smile.

"Were you the girl who was singing earlier?" Jean asked changing the subject. [Name] nodded. "Yeah, sorry if I burst your eardrums," she said with a laugh and an awkward smile on her face.

Marco's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly, "No! You were actually really good!"

"Yeah, you were." Jean agreed.

[Name] smiled and thanked them both before walking over to where Levi was. She plopped down next to him on the bench and let out a tiredly sigh. Levi glanced at her but said nothing. [Name] frowned and sat up straight and stared at him.

"Stop staring like that, it makes you look like a creep."

"Are you mad?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Very."

"So it's okay that they join us on our zombie killing adventure?"

Levi's eyes narrowed at her and she gave a shy smile in response. Levi kept glaring at her and she awkwardly moved around in her seat. He knew he was making her feel uncomfortable, and he didn't mind one bit.

"You're doing this on purpose."

"Doing what?"

[Name] rolled her face to look at him and gave him a are-you-kidding-me face. Levi shrugged his shoulders and looked away, but when [Name] moved her eyes he went back to glaring at her.

"That!" She exclaimed pointing at his eyes. Levi gave her a faked confused look.

"My eyes?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. [Name] nodded with a frown.

"Yes! You keep glaring at me and it's annoying!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Levi said and glared at her like it wasn't happening. He was pissed off that she just had to invite anyone and everyone they came across to their group. To Levi, it just meant more food to find and more people to take care of.

And that was something he didn't enjoy doing.

[Name] glared right back at him, but her glare was nothing compared to his. "You know what I'm talking about." She growled crossing her arms over her chest. Levi shook his head, "No, I actually don't."

Frustrated, [Name] got up from the bench and walked over to Eren and Mikasa without saying a word to Levi. Levi chuckled to himself now that he knew how to piss you off easily. He was definitely going to use that to his advantage.

[Name] walked over to the two step siblings with a grim face. Eren was first to notice it and quickly stopped talking about the subject him and Mikasa were talking about, but [Name] didn't bother to notice since she was mad at Levi and his stupid actions and remarks. "What's your problem?" Eren asked with a nervous chuckle hoping that she hadn't overheard them.

"Levi's a dick," [Name] said bluntly. Both Eren and Mikasa's faces relaxed knowing that you hadn't overheard them. Eren let out a laugh and lied a hand on her shoulder, "I think we all know that by now."

[Name] couldn't help but crack a smile and laugh a little, "Anyways, I was thinking we could all split up into small groups of two or something and do a full on check to make sure the building is cleared out. There could always be some stuck in closets or under something."

Eren and Mikasa both nodded and agreed that would be a good idea. Eren told the rest of the group who was lounging around and cooling off after their performance.

"...So everyone needs a partner."

Immediately Jean and Levi grabbed onto each of [Name]'s arms. They both glared at each other as [Name] stood there awkwardly, not exactly knowing what was going on. Sasha couldn't help but giggle when she was her new best girl friend's face.

"Damn, [Name] you have two boys who want you now!"


	16. Eren!

[Name]'s face instantly turned from its usual [s/c] to a dark shade of red from the comment Sasha just made seconds ago. Sasha was bent over laughing from [Name]'s reaction by now which only made [Name]'s blush darken even more. A light shade of pink spread across Jean's face as he moved his eyes to keep from making eye contact with anybody.

"Actually, no. She's the one I trust the most and been with the most." Levi stated bluntly while glaring at Sasha as her giggles came to an end. Sasha frowned and puffed out her cheeks, obviously annoyed and slightly upset.

"Well we never know. You could be hiding a secret crush on her from us," Sasha said smirking as Levi narrowed his grey eyes at her. Levi scoffed and shook his head.

"I doubt I would develop a crush on someone I met only two days ago. Plus, if that were the case I surely wouldn't be crushing on this one." [Name] raised her eyebrow amused.

"Oh? And what's so bad about that?" [Name] asked, her eyes filling with curiosity and amusement.

Levi rolled his eyes. "Obviously everything."

[Name] narrowed her [e/c] eyes at him and frowned. Jean stood there awkwardly not know what to do or say. His face remained straight but confused. The bickering between the two reminded him of a married couple that's been together since they're early years. [Name] removed her eyes from Levi (even though she wanted to kick him until he dropped dead because of his rudeness) and they eventually found Eren looking down while he leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms; obviously lost in thought.

"Hey, Eren!" [Name] shouted over to him with a revengeful smile on her face. Eren looked up and met her eyes but they his eyes moved to Jean who glared at him, then to Levi who was mentally killing him by using his eyes as knifes - no, chainsaws.

"W-What?" Eren asked nervously. He wasn't paying attention to what was going on and was totally lost and confused about the whole deal. Not to mention; slightly scared.

"Would you like to be my partner?" [Name] asked nicely and tilted her head to the side innocently. Eren's face heated up slightly and he shook his head violently.

"U-Um, no thank you!" Eren said unwillingly. Honestly, he'd love to be her partner. But from the looks he was getting from Jean and Levi suddenly made him change his mind. [Name] frowned and walked over to him, ripping her arms free of the two boys' grips.

"To bad," [Name] smirked, her facial expression changing from upset to happy. Eren's eyes widened as [Name] pulled on his arm and started dragging him to the other side of the mall where a door that said 'BASEMENT' pressed up against the wall.

"Me and Eren will get the basement, and you guys split the floors in half and one group takes a half. Okay? Okay." [Name] said quickly and threw the door open and pulled Eren in, ignoring his loud arguments. Connie walked over to Sasha and nodded to the other before walking up the stairs to the second level and taking the left side of it. Jean shrugged and pulled Marco along as he followed them up there, but taking the right side. Mikasa and Armin walk to the right side of the first level without a word, leaving Levi by himself.

Levi rolled his eyes and shrugged before walking into a random store on his side of the floor. Even though he was still slightly angry at [Name] for her little stunt, one thing kept nagging at his mind.

Why did he even care?

"Jean will you please stop purposely angering the man? His eyes can kill!" Marco said waving his arms around as he talked. Jean rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"Please, he's just to jealous for his own good. It's not like he owns her or something." Jean said, mumbling the last part to himself but Marco heard it loud and clear. Marco sighed and shook his head in slight disappointment.

"That doesn't matter. Why were you so eager to be her partner anyways?" Marco asked curiously. Jean shrugged and stepped into the first store on their side of the second floor.

"She's pretty and nice. Why wouldn't I be?" Jean asked peeking his head around the corner to see no zombies around. Marco sighed and followed Jean out of the store and into another one.

"Yeah, she is. But we just met the girl, don't go freaking her out." Marco said as his eyes spotted a zombie trapped under a rack of clothes. It's eyes noticed the two humans and it growled at them then started trying to claw at them. But since most of it's upper and lower body were being held down, it was no use and made itself look stupid. Jean frowned at Marco's words and sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jean said sadly before stomping on the zombie's head and earning at loud cracking and squishing sound as he did it.

Sasha laughed as Connie flailed his arms around as he shook his hips in a bikini - that had the designed of lady parts on them, which actually looked pretty realistic - that he slipped over his dirtied clothes. They were currently in the store Spencers and Connie couldn't help himself but run in there, Sasha following closely behind. Connie had only been there once when he was thirteen and with two of his male cousins. His aunt had taken him and her sons to the mall with her when she went to interview for a job at some girly store - that's what Connie called it in his mind at the time, not bothering to look at the name of the store.

Him and his two cousins, Ryan and Nate, ran off out of the store even though his aunt told them to stay. His other cousin, Ariella, shouted at them that she was going to tell, but being the stubborn and uncaring brat they were at the time, laughed at her and still ran off. They came upon the store that neither of their parent let them go in or even look at for a couple of seconds; Spencers.

Feeling rebellious and daring at the moment, all three boys ran in until they reached the back of the store. The lady at the register was to busy talking to someone on her phone to notice that three young boys went in the back of the small store. Once the boys got a good look at what was actually in the back of the store, they made faces of disgust and ran out with out glancing at anything else.

Connie laughed inwardly at the memory, remembering that Ariella actually did end up telling that they ran off and they got by with a scolding since she didn't know where they went. He wondered where they were now - dead? Turned? Alive? Connie shook his head at the thought and continued to dance around in the not-so-appropriate bikini before hearing at noise in the back.

Both Connie and Sasha jumped up and stopped what they were doing and darted their eyes to the back of the store. Sasha readied her ax and Connie slowly followed behind her as he wielded his weapon; ready to strike.

They heard another noise, but closer and louder this time and groans followed shortly after it. It was obvious what it was, they just didn't know where it was exactly. Sasha refrained herself from giggling as some of the stores products caught her eyes, but she knew this was serious and pushed her laughing thoughts away.

The noise was heard again and both of them knew where it had come from this time. Sasha and Connie walked around the long shelf that sat in the middle of the store and started laughing loudly at what was in front of them.

A zombie was trapped under and extremely large dildo decoration.

Mikasa and Armin walked silently around the bottom floor. The silent was almost deafening and it was bugging Mikasa. Mikasa sighed and walked into the nearest store - Old Navy. The store was way larger than the rest and was extremely tall, Armin noticed the stairs and guessed that it went up to the second level too.

Mikasa stopped walking and glanced around, making sure that they were alone. Armin stared at her confusingly when she closed her eyes and let out a struggled sigh then opening them again.

"Eren was bitten." Mikasa said lowly and bluntly. She couldn't exactly keep it from him, she was never good at keep secrets. When her and Eren were younger, around the age of ten, Eren had told her that he wanted to join the military and fight for his country. He also told her not to tell his parents.

And what did she do?

She told.

Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger were surprised, but it was the mother who was angry about it. Since then, Eren had been careful about what he'd tell his adoptive sister.

Armin blinked and stared at her like she suddenly grew two extra heads. "What?"

"He got bitten," Mikasa repeated and stared into Armin's widened blue eyes with her dull coat ones.

"A-Are you serious?" Armin asked as his voice shook slightly. Mikasa nodded.

"It was around the same time Thomas was bitten. But Eren hasn't changed yet," Mikasa said. Armin frowned and shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. He's going to turn eventually, so I think we should tell the others. Maybe lock Eren up in one of the stores to see if he changes for a few days. Wouldn't hurt would it?" Armin asked with a raised eyebrow. Mikasa sighed and slightly nodded.

"As much as I don't want that to happen, it's safer for everyone. I doubt Eren would want to hurt any of us." Mikasa said quietly, and Armin nodded in agreement.


	17. The Basement

"Why'd you do that! They were both murdering me with their eyes!" Eren shouted in a hush voice, trying not to grab any unknown attention. For all they know, there's zombies down here. But there's still a chance their isn't. [Name] was hoping on that chance. [Name] sighed and turned around to face Eren, but she couldn't see him because of the darkness that filled the quiet basement.

"I was put on the spot by both of them, it was weird and awkward," [Name] explained with a shrug as she felt around for a switch at the top of the stairs. Eren sighed quietly and shook his head with a small smile on his face.

"Why couldn't you just choose one? It wouldn't be that hard," Eren mumbled the last part. [Name] glared in the direction she guessed Eren was in because of the body heat she was receiving from it.

"Just shut up and find the fucking switch," [Name] growled annoyingly. Eren rolled his eyes and let out a chuckle.

"You're starting to sound like Levi, sure you aren't around him to much?" Eren asked with a grin as his finger gripped onto the familiar feeling of the switch. He flicked it up and the lights came on one by one with a delay. The basement slowly started to light up and [Name] could finally see the inside of it.

"Probably. Oh well, I guess he's rubbing off on me," [Name] said with a shrug while Eren tried to hide a laugh. Realizing what she had said, [Name] turned around and glared at the almost laughing Eren.

"Not like that you pervert!" [Name] said loudly as Eren's laughs broke free from his mouth. The loud noises from the top of the stairs came to a stop quickly when they heard something from one of the doors along the wall at the bottom of it. Both Eren and [Name]'s eyes darted to the end of the stairs expecting something, but nothing came. Confusingly they stared at each other.

"Did you hear that too?" Eren asked with furrowed eyebrows. [Name] slowly nodded and looked back at the direction the noise came from.

"I think it came from there," she said pointing at the old wooden door. The words 'SUPPLIES' were stuck to it in large blue letters. Some of the blue was stain red, and [Name] guessed it was blood considering the other blood pools outside of the door. [Name] looked at Eren, Eren looked at [Name].

"Should we go?" Eren asked staring at the bloodstained door with nervousness. [Name] shrugged and sighed.

"We're supposed to clear every room out, remember?" [Name] said then started walking down the stairs, not bothering to be quiet. Eren nodded and followed behind her. The main room showed no life - or dead. Or both. It looked like a break room almost, with the vending machine, table, chairs, and one of those water things that had Styrofoam cups beside it. After look around, [Name] noticed there were five doors. They all had different labels.

One said 'STORAGE 1' and the one beside it said 'STORAGE 2.' The one on the other side of the one that said 'SUPPLIES' was labeled 'BATHROOM.' The last one didn't have a word, just the number five.

Eren and [Name] walked together to the only door with blood on it and as they got closer they heard the muffled noises behind it. [Name] frowned and furrowed her eyes in slight confusion, wondering what was going on in there. But there was only one way to find out. [Name] place her left hand over the cold metal handle before looked at Eren. Eren gave her a small nod which [Name] returned. Slowly, [Name] opened it to reveal something they didn't exactly expect.

A man with dirty blonde - or light brown, hard to tell - was trying to attack a small ginger girl. Her hair was a little bit different than the usual ginger, it had more of a honey or peach color to it. The man was obviously turned and the girl was crying as she continued kicking her feet at the zombie. It looked like she was forcing herself to do it.

The girl's eyes caught sight of Eren and [Name] then widened. "Help!" She shouted at them, more tears flowing out of her eyes. [Name] blinked then sprang into action and quickly stabbed the turned man in the head. The already dead body became limp once again and the girl let out a quiet sob. She buried her head in her hands and shook her head like she didn't want to believe it. [Name] pulled out the knife and knelt down next to the girl.

"What's your name?" [Name] asked placing a hand on the crying girl's shoulder and offered a sad smile. The girl stopped crying and rubbed her eyes clear then looked at [Name].

"Petra," the girl - Petra - said and forced a smile on her face.

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" [Name] asked. Petra sighed and gave a small nod. Eren closed the door and walked further into the room, ready to listen.

"I'm not really sure what happened, Auruo and I were just doing our jobs at the food court when some man came in and started attacking people," Petra started and looked down at the man who [Name] assumed was Auruo.

"He started biting, eating, and killing the shoppers. Everyone was sent into a panic. The security guards tried talking to him, but he would only growl at them in response. It even got to the point where they shot at him, but he wouldn't die or even act like he was injured," Petra furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at the memory. [Name] urged her to go on, interested in the story.

"Suddenly the people who he attacked stood up and started attacking the guards. It was strange and crazy. They all looked.. dead but they were still moving around. Three of them attacked us, they got some good bites on us too." Petra said and lifted up her right arm. Eren and [Name]'s eyes widened at the deep bite. [Name] glanced at Petra's face to see it was still full of color, unlike what Thomas' was before he changed; it was sickly pale.

"Auruo got bite the worse. His was much deeper than mine. Anyways, we both ran down here for safety. No one else was down here so we though we were good. We stayed down here for a couple of hours before we heard loud music above us," Petra frowned and looked at [Name] and Eren with confused eyes, "Was that you guys?"

"Yeah," [Name] answered. Petra smiled and then went back to her story.

"Not long after all the loud sounds stopped Auruo started looking sick. Really sick. I didn't know what to do, I tried helping him but something happened. Something changed. He stopped moving, and his heart stopped along with it. I thought he was dead." Tears flowed down her cheeks but she ignored them and went on with the story.

"He tried biting at me and I freaked out and kicked him in the stomach. He tried again so I tried talking to him, but it was like he couldn't hear me. He was my best friend, and we were actually seeing each other at the time. Tonight we were supposed to have a date and I was sure he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend," Petra cried some more but quickly wiped the tears away.

"Then you guys came and saved me." Petra looked up and smiled at them. They both gave small smiles back, neither of them had the heart to tell her about the bite and what it does.

"We came with others. Currently we're clearing out the mall and sealing it up to keep it safe. We're going to check the other rooms and make sure nothing is in it, okay? You stay here though. You don't have a weapon," [Name] said. Petra smiled and nodded. Flashing a smile at Petra, [Name] walked out the door and closed it shut.

"She's bitten," [Name] said bluntly after the door closed.

"Yeah, I noticed." Eren sighed and scratched the back of his neck. [Name] sighed.

"What are we going to do with her?" She asked staring at Eren with questioning eyes.

"Lock her up to see if she turns? We've only seen one person change so we don't know if it's just the bite or something else. We could also see how long it takes for her to turn?" Eren said nervously. He tried to hide it, but [Name] noticed it. She decided not to say anything and shrugged it off, but she knew he was hiding something.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. But we have to watch ourselves around her. We don't know when she's going to turn," [Name] said and opened the next door. It was a large room, but there was barely anything in it. No zombies in there.

"Or if," Eren said and walked into the next room. Like the other, there was nothing in it. [Name] raised an eyebrow at Eren with confusion. What's that supposed to mean.

"Yeah.." [Name] trailed off after dragging out the one word. They checked the other rooms and saw nothing but supplies they could use. There was a lot of boxed food in one of them that happened to be a freezer. Other than that, there wasn't much to look at. The basement was smaller than what [Name] expected.

"We should bring her up now," [Name] said walking over to the door they left Petra in. Eren nodded and stood behind her. [Name] opened the door and forced a smile on her face.

"Follow us, we'll bring you to the others." Petra looked up from Auruo's body and smiled at her two hero's then nodded and stood up, leaving her almost lover behind.


	18. Locking Her Up

[Name] and Eren exited the basement with Petra following slowly behind them as she took in the sight that was perfectly normal about two or three hours ago. What used to be the perfect clean mall was now stained with blood and many things were knocked over. Petra's eyes widened and she stopped in her tracks. [Name] glanced back and noticed Petra's shocked expression, but she just turned back around and kept walking to the middle of the mall where the rest of the group sat around talking.

All eyes averted to [Name] and Eren as their footsteps became louder. Mikasa walked up to Eren and gave him a small hug before whispering something in his ear. [Name] couldn't hear what she had said, but by Eren's facial expression he was shocked, angry, and slightly scared.

"We found a survivor but sh-" [Name] started but was cut off by Petra's small footsteps. Petra stood next to [Name] and gave a small nervous smile to the rest of the group that [Name] had been talking about.

"Hi!" Petra greeted with a wave and smile. Levi's eyes observed her and her happy aura and scoffed. Petra frowned and looked at Levi with confusion, "What?"

"How can you act happy at a time like this?" Levi said coldly, glaring at the small female. Petra stared off into space, thinking of an answer.

"I still don't understand the situation.." She trailed off with a small shrug. Levi rolled his eyes as Armin looked at [Name].

"What were you saying?" Armin asked [Name]. [Name] looked over at him then back at Petra then to Eren. [Name] gave a forced smile at Eren then grabbed Petra's arm and shoved her to him. Eren gave her a confused look and mouthed 'what?'

"Why don't you explain to her the situation, somewhere private." [Name] hinted. Eren looked at her with confused eyes before giving a slow nod. [Name] copied his action and then pointed her head in a random direction. Eren nodded and offered a smile at a confused Petra.

"Follow me," Eren said softly and started walking in the direction [Name] pointed in. Petra nodded and followed Eren. Eren turned around and gave a worried glance at [Name]. [Name] just sighed and turned back to the group who all looked confused.

"What was that?" Sasha asked with raised eyebrows. Connie and Jean nodded in agreement.

"She's bitten." [Name] stated placing a hand on her hip. Marco and Jean looked confused, and everyone else's eyes widened.

"What? Why didn't you kill her?" Levi asked standing up and then towering over [Name]. [Name] glared at him while Marco and Jean looked at each other confused.

"Um.. why would it matter if she's bitten? And by what?" Marco asked shyly. Armin looked at the two newcomers and explained how they are pretty sure that the bite causes the people to die and turn into zombies. Jean furrowed his eyebrows together once Armin finished explaining.

"You guys said that you're pretty sure.. not completely sure. So how do you know?" Jean questioned. Everyone except Marco looked at each other before looking back at him.

"That's why I spared her. She isn't bitten that deep, but she still is. I was thinking about locking her up and waiting it see if she turns-"

"We're back." Eren said cutting [Name] off. [Name] turned around and saw Petra who looked down at the floor with a glum expression on her face. She's probably still upset about Auruo, and the information that was just given to her is probably overwhelming. Levi looked at Petra then to [Name] then to the group. Everyone nodded and Eren stood there confused. He didn't know what they were talking about while he was gone, but he had a good idea it was about Petra's bite.

"We should do it," Mikasa said eagerly. [Name] stared at her raised eyebrows then dropped them after noticing she was the only one who noticed Mikasa's change in behavior. Levi stood up and grabbed Petra's arm rather harshly causing Petra to let out a small whimper and try to break free of Levi's iron grip. Like anyone would expect, it was no use. Levi looked back at [Name] and held up a key chain that had tons of keys attached to it. Levi had found it while clearing out his part of the building. It had every key, including the master's key that went to everything.

As Levi walked away towards the place he found the keys he couldn't help but think about how [Name] and Eren stood so close to each other. After all the driving and stops in between Levi had realized how long he'd been around [Name] and the others. Almost a week now and he still couldn't believe the situation. The virus - or whatever you'd like to call it - had obviously spread fast. There was no doubt that in a couple of days all of America will be infected.

"What are you doing? And where are you taking me?" Petra asked trying to sound confident but her words came out like a whimper. Levi rolled his eyes and opened the door he had found the keys in. It was where the officers that worked here used as an office. There was even a small cell in the room, and that's where Levi was planning on putting Petra.

Levi opened the door and shoved her in there then quickly shut it and locked it. Petra picked herself up and walked over to the door and tried opening it but it wouldn't budge.

"Why am I in here?" Petra asked with glossy eyes. Levi turned away from her and crossed his arms, not saying anything. Knowing that she wouldn't get an answer out of the cold man she sighed and sat down on the cot in the cell.

"Is it because of this?" Petra asked and showed him her bite. Levi didn't turn around and look, he just stayed calm and stared forward. Petra let out another sigh then lied down on her back.

"I bet it is.." She trailed off tiredly before falling asleep.


	19. Cuddling

After Petra had fallen asleep Levi had walked back to the rest of the group. [Name] was leaned against the armchair of the bench with her eyes closed. Her chest rose more slower than usual so Levi assumed she had fallen asleep. He didn't blame her, after all the work they've done today he's surprised she didn't fall asleep earlier.

Levi glanced at the main entrance and saw the moonlight shining on the zombies outside of the now safe mall. Everyone else in the group was gone; somewhere else in the mall. Probably back at that furniture store. Levi had noticed beds there so it'd be a comfy place to sleep at out of everywhere else.

Levi sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair before walking over to a sleeping [Name]. He bent his knees and placed one hand under her knees and the other he slipped through her arms to carry her bridal style. The sudden feel of warmth caused [Name] to instantly snuggle into what was creating it - which happened to be none other than Levi himself.

[Name] sleepily wrapped both of her arms around his neck and then snuggled deeper into his chest. Levi felt his eyes widened and his face heat up. The heat that randomly appeared on his face confused him. What was it?

Am I blushing? No. Why would I be blushing anyways?

Levi shook his head and started walking towards the first shop they found. As he walked further into the store he noticed the members of his group scattered around in different places. Eren had a twin size bed, Sasha and Connie were a queen size unintentionally cuddling each other, Armin was laying on his stomach on a soft blue couch, Mikasa was asleep in a recliner that was close to the twin Eren was sleeping on, and Jean and Marco were on two different couches.

All of them were fast asleep, and even one of them was snoring. Levi could swear it was coming from Connie, but it could be from Jean too. Levi's face turned into a scowl we he thought back at how Jean was flirting with [Name] earlier today. Levi glared at Jean's sleeping body before walking away from the area they were in.

Levi walked all the way to the other side of the store. He couldn't hear Connie's (or Jean's) snoring from there and decided it would be the best place to get some shuteye. Levi walked over to the nearest bed; a full sized. It had velvet and gold colored blankets and pillows on it that looked silky yet soft at the same time. Levi slowly removed one hand from [Name]'s sleeping figure - which made her squirm slightly - and pulled down the covers.

He then tried laying her down, he got the lower half of her body to lay on the mattress but there was one slight problem; she wouldn't let go. Her arms were tightly wrapped around Levi's neck. It was like his neck was a small branch that she was holding onto to keep from falling off a cliff - yeah, that tight. Levi rolled his eyes and tried prying her arms off but it still didn't work.

After five minutes of trying to remove her arms Levi gave up. He probably would've kept going but he didn't want to wake her up and he was also tired himself. Sighing, Levi pushed [Name]'s body to the other side of bed then laid down on the side she was on earlier. [Name]'s arms became looser when Levi pulled the covers over both their bodies.

[Name]'s arms completely detached themselves from Levi's neck - causing Levi to let out a sigh of relief - but only to have her lay her head down on his chest and wrap one arms around his torso. Levi closed his eyes and leaned his head back flat against the pillow. He felt weird. Different even. He didn't know whether he enjoyed or disliked the way [Name] was holding onto him in her sleep. Levi sighed inwardly at his confused emotions as blackness neared his mind to take over his consciousness.

Don't tell me I'm actually growing attached her her?

Soft laughter came from around the bed Levi and [Name] were sleeping in. They were surrounded by most of their group members - Jean was put in charge of watching Petra at the moment. Sasha and Connie looked at each other with grins before turning back to the two sleeping people.

"Wake up! Wake up! It's morning!"

[Name] didn't even bother to open her eyes; she could tell who it was by the voices. Instead he tiredly waved her hand around and snuggled deeper into the thing providing warmth to her body. She didn't know what it was, and she didn't honestly care either. It was soft, warm, and comfortable.

Levi on the other hand had woken up minutes ago. Let's just say he wasn't a heavy sleeper and he had heard the voices before they were even close to them. He just didn't want to move. Why? Because it was comfortable? Because it was warm? Levi didn't know the exact answer but he knew one thing; he wasn't moving as soon as they wanted him to.

"Come on [Name]! Wake up! Sure you two look cute together like that but it's kind of gross to look at," Sasha said scrunching her nose up. Connie laughed and the voices slowly started to fade.

'They must've gotten hungry,' Levi thought and smile inwardly.

[Name] frowned. 'You two who? What was she talking about?' She asked herself with furrowed eyebrows. Slowly, [Name] started to open her right eye. It was blurry at first but once it cleared there was no mistaking it.

She was literally cuddling Levi.

Cuddling.

Levi.

Cuddling with Levi.

Is that even possible? How is this happening? Levi surely wouldn't allow it - right? No, he'd probably just shove [Name] off once he woke up. He probably didn't even know he was doing it, after all he was asleep.

Or so she thought.

Levi could feel eyes on him, and he could tell it was [Name]. Her body was tensed in his arms so it was obvious. [Name]'s breath got caught in her throat and she slowly started to pull away from Levi's grasp. Levi took notice of this and frowned inwardly and instantly pulled her back. [Name] let out a quiet gasp of surprise as her chest landed on Levi's.

[Name] widened her eyes at how close their faces were now. Her face reddened - but why? Oh right, she's never had her first kiss yet. Well, she had her first kiss. But no first what do you call it.. make out? Yeah; that.

[Name] lifted her arms and pressed her palms against Levi's chest and tried to push herself off. But Levi's grip was like iron and she wasn't able to budge even and inch away from him. She tried again but Levi's arms still remained protectively wrapped around her waist. Sighing in defeat, [Name] allowed her body to relax and she softly laid her head on his chest. The sound of his slow heartbeat calmed her body even more and she fell back to sleep.

Levi smirked and tightened his arms.


	20. Clothes Shopping

"Well.. she turned." Jean said with a sigh as he walked to the group of people. [Name] and Levi had finally woken up - around two hours after Sasha and Connie tried to wake them - and were basically acting like nothing happened.

Even though it was the only thing of their mind.

[Name] was confused but knew that it was probably just an accident that Levi did when he was asleep. And after being shoved off of him rudely she knew that her reason was right. While Levi on that other hand was even more confused than [Name]. He had shoved her off only because he came to his senses - and his senses were never to get too close. He learned that a long time ago.

But yet, for some reason he couldn't help but steal glances at her. The way her [h/c] locks shone when she turned her head, how she laughed at Connie's dumb jokes, and how her [e/c] eyes would catch his. He just couldn't help it, even if he wanted to.

And he sure wanted to.

[Name] frowned and looked at Jean with furrowed eyebrows. "What?"

Jean sighed and walked closer to her and place a hand on her shoulder. "The girl you found, Petra, she turned." [Name]'s eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly.

"Seriously? Did you.. you know?" [Name] asked mumbling the last two words. Jean gave her a sad look and slowly nodded his head. [Name] closed her eyes and opened them with a forced smile.

"What was that? Two days?" [Name] questioned. Jean raised his eyebrows with confusion.

"What? Aren't you upset?" Jean asked staring at her.

"I mean, yeah. But I didn't know the girl that well. Death happens to everyone eventually," [Name] shrugged and sighed, "we all knew it was going to happen to her anyways. She was more of an experiment even though it's sad and it sounds bad to say, it's true." Jean opened his mouth to say something but he was quickly cut off by a running Sasha who was flailing her arms around as she shouted [Name]'s name over and over again.

"Hm?" [Name] hummed after turning her attention from Jean to Sasha. Sasha stopped in front of [Name] and rested her hands on her knees and panted.

"Lets do some shopping!" Sasha smiled. [Name] raised an eyebrow.

"We don't have to buy anything anymore," [Name] laughed.

"Well duh! You know what I mean!" Sasha grinned and tugged on [Name]'s hand. [Name] smiled apologetically at Jean before being dragged away by Sasha. Once she was out of sight Jean sighed and went to turn around, but instead he caught Levi's glare from the other side of the mall. Jean raised an eyebrow and looked around him to see if there was anyone else around him.

When he saw he was the only one he looked back up to see that Levi was already gone. Maybe it was just his imagination?

"I've always wanted to be rich so I could buy whatever clothes I want, but now I don't have to worry about money!" Sasha exclaimed as she dragged [Name] into the nearest store, Victoria's Secret. [Name] rolled her eyes when they entered the store.

"Seriously Sasha?" [Name] asked with a small chuckle.

Sasha smile sheepishly, "Sorry."

The two girl looked around at things and tried on a couple of clothing. [Name] had changed out her old bra and underwear out with nice, clean, expensive ones. Her other ones were sweaty and dirty - two things [Name] didn't want to continue to feel. "Where should we go next?" Sasha thought out loud.

"Ugh! There's so many shops it's hard to choose!" She cried throwing her hands up in the air.

"It's not like we're planning on leaving any time soon," [Name] said rolling her eyes. Sasha grinned and turned to [Name].

"I know a place!" Sasha then tugged on [Name]'s arm - again - and pulled her to another store. [Name] didn't get to see the name of it, but it had some cute clothes. "Can we go to Hot Topic afterwards?" [Name] asked with a sigh. Sasha nodded then walked over to a rack of clothing. [Name] grinned and followed her.

"You should try this on!" Sasha giggled as she held up a black leather skirt on a hanger. [Name]'s eyes widened and she quick shook her head.

"No, no, no, no! That thing would barely cover my ass!" [Name] exclaimed examining the short piece of leather. Sasha threw her head back and laughed loudly.

"Just do! Please? It's not like anyone else is going to see you, they are all busy with there stuff," Sasha pouted then turned around and grabbed a random shirt to go with it. "Try this on too," she added. [Name] sighed and grabbed the clothes and made her way to the dressing rooms.

She slid off her dirtied jean shorts and black tank top and kicked her boots off in the process. [Name] then glanced at the skirt and let out another sigh. Would she even be able to squeeze that on? Sure, she'd lost a lot of weight this past week and a half but was it that much that she'd be able to fit into something like that?

Shrugging her shoulders [Name] unhooked the skirt from the hanger and stepped her legs through it. Surprisingly, the skirt fit almost perfectly. It stopped a little bit above her mid thigh and the top went up to the bottom of her bellybutton. It fit tightly yet it snugged into the curves she didn't know she had.

[Name] glanced at the shirt before ripping it off it's hanger. The shirt was a crop top that would probably meet with the top of the skirt. It was white and had the words 'Don't talk to me' on it in red fancy letters. [Name] shrugged and slipped it on over her head.

She was right; it did meet her skirt. Right where the shirt ended, the skirt started. Without even glancing into the full body mirror right next to her [Name] opened the door and walked out. Sasha turned around at the sound of [Name]'s footsteps and held two below-the-knee high heel boots up.

They were black and leather, just like the skirt. The heel was only about two inches tall, so [Name] figured she could probably walk in them without falling. It seemed like forever since she'd worn heels. [Name] raised an eyebrow.

"What?" She asked eyeing the boots. Sasha grinned and shoved them into [Name]'s face.

"Put them on!"

"What? No! I already put this on!"

"Please?! It'll complete the look!"

"What look?"

"The look I want to see on you!"

Sighing and glaring at Sasha [Name] ripped the shoes out of her hands. Sasha smiled in victory as [Name] pulled them on and zipped them up. After zipping them both up she stood up and flattened out the skirt.

"Happy now?" [Name] asked with annoyance.

"Yes! You should try this one nex-" Sasha started holding up a dark blue dress but she was cut short by a deep voice outside the store.

"Oi Sasha! Connie wants you for some fucking reason and can't find you because he's an idiot!" The voice, none other than Levi himself shouted from outside the door. Both Sasha and [Name]'s eyes widened when they heard Levi's loud footsteps growing louder as he walked towards the door.

"Sasha you said no one else would see me!" [Name] shouted in a hushed voice.

"I didn't know he'd come looking for me! Just grab something and change real quick!" Sasha said back in the same tone and threw her hands up in the air to create motions while she spoke. [Name] sighed and glared at Sasha before sprinting towards a rack of clothes.

And by sprinting it actually means attempting to sprint but ended up tripping over her own feet and falling on her face just as Levi opened the door to the store.

Levi stopped short as he eyes traveled to [Name]'s body. His eyes widened slightly and he found himself not being able to speak. [Name] cursed herself mentally and slowly got up and smiled sheepishly over at a gaping Levi.

"Heh.. Uh.. Sorry about that.." [Name] muttered awkwardly looking down with a red face. Levi opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

Why can't I speak? What the hell is this?

Sasha suddenly ran towards the two with a scared expression on her face. "I'm sorry! Let's just go now!" She said loudly and pushed Levi out of the doors and gave [Name] an apologetic face. [Name] groaned and ran a hand throw her [h/c] locks.

"She's going to be so mad at me," Sasha muttered as she walked beside Levi to where Connie was. Levi wanted to just walk away and do his own thing but Sasha asked him to lead her to Connie and eventually he gave in saying something along the lines of 'you owe me.'

"Why's that?" Levi asked with a raised eyebrow. Sasha's eyes widened and she stared at Levi with a weird face.

"Oh nothing! I just told her that no one would see her in the outfit because I really wanted her to try it on," Sasha mumbled and grinned innocently. Levi scoffed and rolled his eyes. They continued walking on the first level of the mall in silence until Sasha broke it.

"Did you like it?" Sasha asked.

"Like what?" Levi mumbled.

"Like her outfit!" Sasha giggled. Levi's face flushed and he quickly shoved Sasha in the store Connie wanted her to meet her in, Game Stop. Sasha shrieked in surprise and fell on the ground of the store. Connie paused his game and looked over at the entrance before smiling and waving.

"Oh hey Sasha! You made it!" Connie grinned and held up a bag of potato chips. Sasha's mind completely cleared as she got up and lunged for her favorite type of chips. "Awe yeah!"

[Name] strolled over to Armin in a simple pair of sweatpants and a Soul Eater t-shirt. As she got closer she noticed Armin had changed too. He was now wearing gray sweats with a blue t-shirt on. He was also leaned up against the armchair of the couch with a book in front of his face.

"Whatcha reading?" [Name] asked. Armin jumped and slammed the book shut in surprise, but when he looked over and saw that it was only [Name] he let out a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, I'm still kind of jumpy," Armin apologized. [Name] shrugged and waved it off.

"It's fine. It's good to be a little self cautious," she explained and sat down on the other side of the couch. She pulled her feet up and sat Indian style and stared at Armin before her eyes traveled down the book in her hands.

"City of Heavenly Fire? I didn't know you were into those kinds of books," [Name] said with furrowed eyebrows. Armin shrugged and looked at the cover of the book.

"I like all kinds of books. I just think it's more interesting to read what other people come up with," he said with a smile. [Name] nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I've always wondered how they came up with that stuff." She admitted. Armin laughed and placed the book down on the table next to them.

"Anyways, what's up?" He asked changing the subject. [Name] shrugged.

"Nothing really. I am mad at Sasha though," [Name] confessed.

"Why?" Armin asked curiously.

"Well we were looking at the clothes in all the shops and she got me to try on this one outfit. It was kind of revealing so she convinced me by saying no one would see me. And guess what? Levi saw me. It was so embarrassing! I wouldn't even want you to see me in that!" [Name] explained making motions with her hands.

Armin let out a laughed and shook his head, "Was it really that bad?"

"Yes!" [Name] answered loudly causing Armin to laugh even more. [Name] glared at him before cracking a smile.

"So what's up with you?" She asked. She hadn't really talked to Armin that much since they'd been here. Before they cleared the place out they were too busy fighting for their lives to make small talk.

"Read some books, hanged out with Eren." Armin shrugged lazily. [Name] frowned and looked up.

"Speaking of Eren, is something wrong with him or something? He's been acting weird lately," [Name] said with a frown. Armin's eyes widened as he tried to come up with an excuse for Eren's odd behavior. He knew what it was probably about, and he also knew that if [Name] found out she'd be upset and probably would do what she did to Petra, lock him up until he turns.

Armin knew that [Name] wasn't that cruel to kill Eren herself, but Levi was another story. He even said he would if any of them got bit, and he wasn't one to go back on his words.

"He saw his mom get eaten by those things.." Armin explained hoping she would buy it. It wasn't a lie either, he actually did. They all did. One of their teachers, Mr. Hannes, had to carry him out of there because he wouldn't go himself.

[Name]'s frown deepened and her eyes filled with sadness, "I didn't know.."

"It's alright. The only ones that know are him, Mikasa, and me. He was probably going to say something eventually," Armin shrugged. [Name] nodded slowly and sighed.

"At least he knows his mother is dead, I don't know if mine or the rest of my family are alive or not. The curiosity kills me," [Name] admitted. Armin offed a small sad smile.

"Eren doesn't know anything about his dad. He left for a work trip to California to do something and Eren never saw him since. He was a doctor and a scientist so Eren has hope that his dad will find a cure for this thing," Armin explained. [Name] smiled.

"Hope is really the only thing we can count on now, isn't it?" She asked with a laughed.

Armin laughed along with her, "I guess so."


	21. Midnight Snacks

Levi's eyes shot open as a loud clanking sound rang through his ears. He instantly sat up from the black cushioned couch that he had moved in the middle of the bottom floor so he wouldn't have to listen to Connie's loud snoring. Honestly, he didn't understand how any of them could sleep with that annoying noise filling the air.

Levi reached for his gun and slowly started walking in the direction the sound came from. As he got closer, he noticed the light to McDonald's was on. Keeping a straight face and holding his gun in front of him, he stepped one foot in one of America's favorite restaurant. That's just one more thing he didn't understand about humankind - or what used to be humankind.

Taking another silent step, Levi heard another noise. But instead of it being distant, it was directly behind the 'Employees Only' door that kept all the food and cooking devices in it. Steadily Levi placed a hand on the push only door and made sure he could aim and shoot at what is making the noises.

Taking a breath, Levi quickly pushed open the door and saw a figure crouched down on the floor with it's back to him. Without looking properly, Levi shot - but missed. A loud shriek pierce his ears and the figure shot up and held a hand to their heart.

"What the hell Levi?!" [Name] shouted at him trying to catch her breath. Levi opened his eyes and stared at a shocked [Name] who was panting heavily.

"Oh, it's just you." Levi said plainly then shoved his gun in the back of his jeans.

"You just tried to shoot me!" [Name] exclaimed glaring in Levi's direction. Levi just shrugged then looked down at the mess of food on the floor and grimaced.

"Clean that," Levi ordered and averted his eyes from the floor to [Name]. [Name] glanced down at the mess she had made because of her clumsiness then shook her head.

"No, you clean it. You're the clean freak here." [Name] retorted and placed a hand on her hip and smirked. Levi glared at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You made it," he hissed and narrowed his eyes.

"You want it clean," [Name] shot back and copied his actions by crossing her arms over her chest and narrowing her [e/c] eyes into his gray ones. Levi scoffed and glanced down at the melting mess of vanilla ice cream.

"It's melting. You better clean it before it makes the floor all sticky," [Name] teased and went to walk past Levi and out the door so she could continue on with her beauty sleep - except without the ice cream. Just as she was about to push to door open, a hand gripped onto her arm to prevent her from leaving.

"I will make you clean it if I have to." Levi warned. [Name] sighed and turned around. "How about no."

"How about yes." Levi insisted.

"I think not," [Name] sassed.

"I think yes," Levi sassed back and blocked the door way. [Name] growled under her breath and glared at his slightly taller figure.

"I'd rather not." [Name] blurted.

"I'd rather you do." Levi snapped.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I will stand here all night if I have to. You're cleaning it," Levi advised. [Name] sighed know there was no way out of this. She had learned of Levi's strange cleaning disorder when they first met and ever since then he's snapped at her for being dirty or getting something dirty. It had gotten quite annoying to her, but she knew that if she didn't obey and clean he'd probably lock her in the freezer.

'That's actually sad that I'm not surprised that he'd do that,' [Name] thought and bellowed her head. "Fine, Mr. BossyAssCleanFreak."

"What was that?" Levi growled from in front of the doorway. [Name]'s eyes widened and she quickly crouched down and started to clean the melted ice cream, "Nothing!"

"That's what I thought," Levi smirked and leaned against the wall, but still guarded the only door out with his right foot. As he looked around the cramped cooking area he couldn't help but stare at [Name] as she cleaned. Her backside was facing him and he couldn't help but let his eyes trail down it it.

"Gosh, stop staring at my ass, Levi." [Name] joked without turning around. Levi averted his eyes immediately and scoffed. "Like there's anything to look at," he lied. If only she knew he was actually staring at her backside. [Name] faked an offended gasp and the hand she wasn't using to clean up to her chest.

"I'm offended. You think I don't have any curves?" [Name] squeaked in a 'valley girl' voice. Levi glanced down and looked over her body as she continued to scrub the ice cream off the floor.

"Yes." Lie.

[Name]'s mouth dropped and she turned and glared at Levi who stared back with a bored expression. "You're so mean!" [Name] barked. Levi shrugged and stared at the plain white wall that had a poster that was supposed to remind the workers to wash their hands, but Levi highly doubted that any of them took orders from the small poster.

"So I've been told," Levi admitted. [Name] rolled her eyes and turned her head back to the floor. She lifted the sponge she was cleaning with and admired her work. "There. Clean as new."

Levi pushed himself off the walk and walked over to where [Name] was still crouched to observe her work. After glancing down and it he gave an approving nod. [Name] smirked and jumped up to stretch her muscles - and accidentally smacked Levi in the face. Levi froze and [Name] froze.

[Name]'s eyes widened as she stared at her arm that made skin contact with Levi's face. Levi slowly lifted his left arm and pushed away [Name]'s before saying one simple word that held so much anger in it.

"Run."

[Name] quickly sprinted towards the door and pushed past it. As she frantically glanced around for a place to hide, Levi blinked slowly and snapped his head to the door that [Name] had ran out of only seconds ago. Taking his time, Levi walked over to the door and pushed it open. He stepped out of the crowded room and let the door swing itself shut before he broke out in a full on sprint.

Hearing the loud pounding of Levi's fast footsteps [Name] panicked and let out a squeal then started running in a random direction. Levi heard [Name] squeal of surprised and smirked. He sped up his pace and ran in the direction her voice came from. [Name] heard the footsteps get louder and faster meaning he was gaining up on her.

Panting, [Name] quickly shoved her worn out body in random room that just happened to be next to her. She took a couple steps back from the door and glanced around the room. Well, it wasn't exactly a room or store. It was a janitor closet. The smell of cleaning chemicals filled her nose and she struggled not to let out a sneeze or cough.

Levi's footsteps came to a slow pace as he reached the area where he heard [Name]. [Name] heard his slow footsteps outside the door and bit her lip to stop the panting, because panting equals noise which equals being discovered and [Name] really doesn't want to know what happens next.

Levi stopped right in front of the janitor's closet and listened for any noise that would tell him where [Name] was at. Then he heard it - her breathing. It was close, really close. Levi turned around and scanned his eyes over the closet and held back a chuckle. Of course.

When the footsteps stopped completely, [Name] thought that Levi had moved on and was looking somewhere else so she decided to open the door. And boy, was she wrong. When she opened the door she came face to face with a pissed off Levi. [Name]'s eyes widened and she let out a scream and slammed the door in his face.

Wrong move.

Levi reached for the handle and opened the door. [Name] glanced around for an object to defend herself with when her eyes landed on a broom. She glanced back at Levi who was slowly approaching her and quickly grabbed for the stick of it. Quickly, she swung at him and right when she though she'd actually hit him, Levi's hand wrapped around the end of the stick before it even came five inches of his face.

[Name]'s eyes widened even more (if that's even possible) as Levi ripped the broom from her grasp and made her stumbled forward. [Name] looked around the closet for something else, but the only things left were bottles of chemicals that wouldn't do her much help. As Levi took a step forward, [Name] took a step back.

"L-Look Levi I think there's some misunderstanding," [Name] stuttered and took another step back as Levi stepped forward. Levi raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

[Name] gulped and nodded. "Y-Yeah, you see it was an accident." Another step back, another step forward.

"You see, I don't think it was." Levi said calmly. Another step forward, another step back.

"W-What? Of course it was!" [Name] argued when her back smacked against the cement hard wall. She let out a small gasp and stared at Levi with fearful eyes. Levi's figure grew taller and closer as he approached her. [Name] gulped and looked up at him as he came to a stop. His body was basically pressed up against hers and he put his hands on both sides of her so there was no way to escape.

"You sure about that?" Levi whispered in her ear, his hot breath sending goosebumps down her skin. [Name]'s face heated and she nodded. "Y-Yeah!" Levi smirked and stared down at her. [Name] did everything but make eye contact with him.

"Are you going to lock me in a freezer?"

"No."

"Throw me in that huge fish tank in that one store?"

"No."

"Have me clean some more?"

"No."

"Then what are you going to do?" [Name] asked slightly confused and looked up at Levi. Levi smirked when he noticed how close their faces were.

"I have a much better punishment," he said lowly.

"What is i-" [Name] was cut off by Levi pressing his lips against hers. [Name]'s eyes widened in surprised and she stood frozen in shock. When Levi noticed it he pressed his lips against her even harder making her head hit the wall. [Name]'s eyes fluttered shut and she eventually found herself kissing back with the same amount of force that Levi was kissing her with.

Her arms picked themselves up and wrapped around Levi's neck the same time Levi's wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to him. [Name]'s hand found themselves getting tangles and Levi's dark locks which caused her to press her chest up against his. Levi pulled away for a second to catch his breath then placed his lips back on hers just as fast as he pulled away.

[Name] melted into the kiss and pulled herself closer to Levi. Levi's tongue slid across her lips and when she didn't even an answer right away he tightened his hands around her waist making her let out a small gasp, but that was enough for Levi to force his tongue inside her mouth and explore it.

[Name] let out a whimper when Levi's tongue pushed hers down and won dominance inside her mouth. As Levi continued to kiss her, his thumbs subconsciously rubbed small circles along her waist.

Levi opened his eyes and quickly pulled away making [Name] confused and shocked. His lips were swollen and his eyes were wide with surprise. Had he actually just done that? [Name] stared back at him with wide eyes as she tried to ignore the tingling feeling on her lips.

"I shouldn't have done that," Levi said quickly and sprinted out of the room in embarrassment. [Name] stood there shocked and raised a hand to her swollen and tingly lips not believe that had just happened either. Her face flushed when she realized it did happen and Levi had completely pushed her away.

[Name] sighed and slowly moved towards the door, "No midnight snacks for me anymore."


	22. Party

A week has past since the kiss between Levi and [Name] and neither of them had said a word to each other. Not a single word. They wouldn't even make eye contact unless it was an accident. And when it did happen, they would both look away immediately. It was starting to bug [Name]. He just kisses her and basically says it was a mistake - a little harsh on rejection aren't we?

The whole week of avoidance [Name] was trying to sort out her feeling. Did she like Levi? She knew she felt something during that kiss; and she knew that him ignoring her hurt. Is that what having a crush feels like? She didn't exactly know, she's only had one crush in her lifetime. It was in first grade and the boy ended up moving away.

But [Name] wasn't the only one confused about her feelings, Levi was too. He was still annoyed they he made such a foolish move - what had gotten into him? He didn't know, but it was irritating him. But he basically had the same question repeating over in his head, did he like [Name]?

"Come on [Name]! It's been a week!" Sasha whined and tugged on [Name]'s sleeve. [Name] had told Sasha about the kiss the day after it happened. At first she was super happy saying that she called it but when [Name] finished the story she was angry and upset. The only other person who knew was Connie, thanks to Sasha.

"So? It's obvious he didn't mean it. It was just the heat of the moment," [Name] sighed and tried to play it off, but deep down she was upset and offended over it. Sasha rolled her eyes not believe a single word that came out of [Name]'s mouth.

"Seriously though, you should talk to him." She said and tossed another crisp potato chip into her mouth then chewed on it lovingly - if that makes any sense.

"There's nothing to talk about," [Name] simply stated and turned away from the potato loving girl.

"Are you guys talking about you-know-what?" Connie asked as he approached the two girls.

"Yes."

"No."

Sasha and [Name] both glared at each other with hard eyes. Connie sighed and stepped in between the two. "I think you should talk to him."

"See! That's what I've been saying this whole freaking time!" Sasha exclaimed throwing her hands up in the air which resulted in her dropping the bag full of chips. "Oh no, my babies!" She shouted and hopped off the stool to fetch her 'babies.'

"Whatever. It's not happening. Besides, there's no time for romance at a time like this," [Name] said and pointed at the front entrance that had blood spatters along the glass doors. The zombies that mostly moved away from it, but there was still a few that lingered around.

"Talking about romance are we?" A voice said from behind [Name]. [Name] furrowed her eyebrows and spun around in her stool to come face to face with an eyebrow wiggling Eren. [Name] frowned and kicked him in the thigh.

"Ow! What was that for?" Eren cried bending over slightly and putting pressure to his thigh.

"For being an idiot." [Name] shrugged and took a sip from her drink. Eren rolled his eyes and pushed her off the stool and claimed the seat as his.

"Paybacks a bitch, isn't it?" Eren taunted with a smirk as he stared down at an angered [Name]. [Name] closed her eyes and let out a heavy annoyed sigh.

"You better start running, Jaeger." [Name] warned in a dangerously low voice. Eren's eyes widened and he quickly jumped off the stool. [Name]'s eyes shot open and followed Eren's running figure when she spotted Marco walking from the direction Eren was heading in. "Marco! Grab Eren!" She shouted.

Marco gave her a confused look but grabbed onto Eren's arm. Eren's eyes widened and he looked down at his bitten arm. The bite was showing. "Okay! I give up!" Eren shouted in a panicked voice as [Name] stood on her feet and walked over to him. Marco let him go and he quickly pulled down his sleeve.

"And I thought this would be fun," [Name] sighed and slumped her shoulders. Eren let out a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his next.

"Did someone say fun?!" A yell that obvious belonged to Connie asked. Eren, Marco, and [Name]'s gaze turned to look at the childish boy to see him holding up a boombox. "Why are you holding a boombox?" Jean asked as he walked over to the middle of the bottom floor. Sasha hopped off her stool and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "To party, duh."

Marco raised an eyebrow, "Party?"

"Yeah, party." Connie said like it wasn't obvious. "Why?" Jean asked. Connie shrugged.

"Might as well. I found some booze," Connie smirked and pointed to a cooler full of alcohol that sat behind him. Eren grinned. "I'll go find Armin and Mikasa!" He said before running off to find them.

"Why don't you go and find Levi, [Name]." Sasha smirked. Jean gave her a questioning look.

"No," [Name] said bluntly.

"Why not?" Sasha whined and crossed her arms.

"I'm not going to go look for him-"

"Look for who?"

Everyone's eyes darted to where the voice came from, and of course, it was Levi. Levi's eyes traveled to [Name] who quickly looked away with wide ones. Sasha smiled innocently, "You, duh!" [Name] gave a cold glare at Sasha, who just smiled in return. Levi raised an eyebrow at looked at her curiously.

"And why's that?" He asked slightly interested. Connie smiled and held the boombox up along with some CD's. "We're going to par-tay!" Sasha grinned and gave a high five to Connie. Levi rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"At a time like this?" Levi said crossing his arms. Sasha and Connie shrugged. "We have nothing better to do, we might as well live out lives a little bit because it could be out time soon," Connie explained. Levi sighed and gave a lazy shrug, "Fine."

"Eren don't sorry, he probably didn't see it." Armin tried assuring but Eren only gave a sigh in response. "I guess you're right. It's been three weeks now, and it only took Thomas and Petra to turn within a day or two. I just don't understand why I haven't yet," Eren mumbled and lowered his head. Mikasa walked next to him and placed a pale hand on his shoulder.

"Maybe your father had something to do with it, didn't you say you had dreams about him putting something inside of you?" She asked looking at his with worried eyes.

"I'm pretty sure it was just a dream, but yeah I guess. If that's the only reasonable way, then I'm going to stick with it," he replied with a small sigh, "anyway, Connie and Sasha want us to have a party with them."

"A party?" Armin asked with furrowed brows. Eren nodded. "Yeah, something fun to do I guess. I don't blame them, though. It may be the last time we're all able to sit back and have fun."

"Alright, let's go." Mikasa said and started walking to the middle of the first floor with Eren and Armin following closely behind her.

"Hey! Look who showed up!" Connie laughed as the three friends approached them. They were playing dance music and Connie had a beer in his hands. Eren looked over and saw Sasha and [Name] giggling as they watched Jean and Marco do the classic dance moves. Right now Jean was doing the shopping cart while Marco did the sprinkler. Eren saw Levi leaned against the wall with a bored expression on his face as he watched the group of young adults mess around.

"Yeah, I found them at some book store." Eren snorted then walked over to the cooler and grabbed a can of beer. "This kind, really Connie?" Eren asked examining the label. Connie shrugged his shoulders. "It's the only kind I could find."

"Don't drink too much," Mikasa warned. Eren put his hands up in defense and nodded. "Aye, aye Captain!" Mikasa rolled her eyes and turned to Armin who was singing the words to the song but suddenly stopped when he noticed Mikasa looking at him trying to hold back a grin.

"I didn't know you listened to this kind of music, Armin." Mikasa smirked. A blush dusted Armin's cheeks and he quickly looked away. "I-I don't! My roommate did!"

While Mikasa and Armin argued, Connie and Eren drank, and Marco, [Name], and Jean danced playfully Sasha walked over to Levi. Levi glanced at her from the side and scoffed. "What do you want?"

"You should ask [Name] to dance," Sasha grinned looking over at the [h/c] haired girl.

"No." Levi said bluntly. That would be awkward, weird, and let's not forget - embarrassing. Sasha sighed, "Why not?"

"Because it'd be weird," Levi answered truthfully without looking at her. Sasha let out another sigh and turned her body to look at the group of dancers.

"She's upset ya know," Sasha stated. Levi furrowed his eyebrows. "About what?"

"The kiss you guys had. She told me about it," Sasha shrugged. Levi frowned and turned his head to look at her. "What do you mean?" He asked as the song switched to another upbeat one. "She feels rejected. She actually likes you, she just won't admit it."

Levi's eyes widened and he turned his head back to looking at them dance around. [Name] was laughing as she watched Marco attempt to twerk. Levi almost smiled at the sound of her laugh. "I'm just saying, you really should. I'm going to change it to a slow song here soon, and you better make your move or she'll move on to Jean," Sasha said then walked towards the music player. Levi growled at the thought of [Name] and Jean becoming a thing.

He could not let that happen. He just couldn't; he wouldn't be able to stand seeing [Name] with that horse-face. Sasha popped out the disc that was currently playing and quickly replaced it with a different one then a slow song started playing. [Name] furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she glanced around the room.

Levi sighed and pushed himself off the wall and walked over to her. [Name] looked up at the sound of footsteps nearing her and widened her eyes when she noticed it was Levi. "Would you like to dance?" He asked and held out a hand. [Name] blushed and slowly nodded her head, taking Levi's hand in hers. Levi smiled inwardly and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Sasha gave a thumbs up to [Name] from behind Levi which only caused her to blush more and glare at her. Sasha started to laugh when Connie approached her and asked her to dance - which she agreed to. [Name] hesitated before wrapping her arms around Levi's neck. They swayed along to the music in silence before Levi finally broke it.

"I'm sorry."

[Name] looked up at him with a confused face, "Sorry for what?" Levi looked down at her and tightened his grip around her waist. "You know what," he said lowly. [Name]'s mouth formed into an 'o' and she looked down at their feet. "It's okay," she said quietly. This caused Levi to frown.

"No, it's not okay." Levi said quickly. [Name] looked back up at him and opened her mouth to speak but Levi beat her to it. "I probably confused you and made you feel rejected when I didn't mean to. I feel bad about it and I regret pulling away. This past week has been terrible for me," he admitted not bothering to look at [Name]'s shocked face.

"This is weird for me, really weird. But different. And I don't know if I like it or not, but I know one thing," Levi paused and looked down at [Name]'s wide eyes, "I know that I feel something towards this brat I'm dancing with."

[Name] blinked and played the words back in her head. It was so strange - Levi talking about his feelings and all. Levi bit his lip and waited for her to say something, anything. This is probably the only time he's ever felt so nervous, he just confessed his feelings after all. Feelings that he didn't even knew he had.

"I-I don't know what to say," [Name] replied flabbergasted. Levi sighed and pressed his forehead to hers. His warm breath hit her face and he spoke.

"I didn't expect you to. I just wanted to let it out. I know I've been a jerk to you since we met, but honestly I'm glad I was the one to save you that day." Levi said sincerely. [Name] stood there speechless. This was all so new to her. She had no idea about his feelings, so it shocked her to find this information out.

"I-I like you too, Levi." [Name] stuttered, not being able to speak clearly anymore. Levi smile and let his eyes flutter shut and [Name] copied his actions. Just as their lips were about to touch, a loud crash of glass breaking and walls being torn. But worst of all the sound of zombies.


	23. Strangers

Everyone stopped in their place, but their heads snapped to the front entrance. What once was all barricaded up and decorated with glass doors was now torn open and had piece of glass scattered everywhere. And what caused this?

A tank.

A large ass motherfucking tank. (According to [Name].)

Or, at least [Name] thought it was a tank. It looked very similar to the tanks in the old history books she was forced to look at and read back when she was in school. The tank was a rusty green color, brown almost. There was a built blonde haired male sticking out of the hatch of the war machine and he was too busy shooting the zombies with the machine gun attached to it to even notice the surprised and shocked expressions of the people inside the mall.

"Reiner! We don't have much ammo left!" A skinny, tall brunette shouted at the blonde, who [Name] assumed was Reiner, as he popped out of the driver's hatch then quickly shoved himself back in. Right after the brunette disappeared back into the tank, another head popped out. Except this time it was a blonde haired girl.

She worn a bored expression on her face and her hair was pulled up into a low bun, but a few stands of her bangs continued to hand freely from her face. "Just hurry up and kill them, Reiner!" She shouted at him then went to duck back in when her gaze fell of the other nine humans with shocked expressions.

"What's taking you so lon-" The brunette started to say as he squeezed his upper body out of the tank then stopped short when he noticed the people his comrade was staring at. Levi frown and pulled out his gun that he seemed to always keep hidden under his shirt and jeans then pointed it at the three strangers.

"What the fuck are you shitheads doing here?" Levi asked slowly, but [Name] could hear the anger hidden in his voice. By now everyone had a least some sort of weapon out, it wasn't the weapons they had used when they first arrived at the mall so that was sort of a bummer, but at least it was something.

[Name] angled her knife and glared at the blonde female. Even if her face was as cold as a demon's, her eyes were a bright heavenly blue, and were big, too. "We're being chased down by a herd and we lost control of the tank," the female said bluntly. Eren frown at her bluntness but didn't say anything.

"Well, leave," Jean said glaring at her. The other blonde, Reiner, was too busy shooting zombies with the machine gun to even listen in to the intense conversation going on behind him. The loud noise the gun made didn't help either.

"Wait, hold on a second Jean! We can't just abandon them!" Marco argued while he held his handgun out in the zombies direction. "I don't care, they let them in," Jean sneered and glared at the girl again. The girl only stared at him with bored eyes and made a 'hmp' noise through her shut lips.

"[Name] and them didn't abandon us! We have to at least give them a shot!" Marco cried, the gun in his hand waving around aimlessly.

"No."

"Stop being mean, Jean."

"I don't trust them."

"I'm sure Levi didn't trust us when he first met us."

"I still don't, actually." Levi informed, earning a scowl from Jean. Marco sighed and shook his head. "Whatever, Jean just ask [Name] what she thinks."

Jean snapped his head to [Name] who just looked at him confusingly. "[Name]," Jean started and [Name] gave him a small nod, "do you think we should help them?" [Name] pursed her lips to the side and thought about it. Should she? After all, they did break into their living quarters and let zombies in. But on the other hand they didn't really have a say in the events that happened.

"Help now, talk later." [Name] said insisted, but yet it seemed more like an order to the other. Levi kept his mouth in a straight line, not having anything to say. He didn't trust the strangers, but if [Name] wanted to help, he'll help. Before Jean could say anything, [Name], Connie, Eren, and Sasha started walking forward towards the herd of dead.

Armin sighed and followed behind them, Mikasa directly in front of him. Levi slowly blinked before heading in and exterminating the dead intruders, and Marco followed shortly after shooting a zombie directly in the forehead. Jean frowned, obviously not agreeing with the situation, but helped out anyways.

So there they were; killing zombies for people they didn't even know. But like [Name] said, it's better to help now and talk later. Not only are the strangers lives on line, their's are too.

[Name] forced her knife into a woman's skull while she kicked another one away. Like all the other times before, the corpse went limp and [Name] continued to go on with her killing spree. Levi didn't have his two swords with him, only a gun and long pocket knife. He was mainly using the knife, but he had the gun in his other hand just in case one of them go to close to him while he's using his knife.

Connie and Sasha were killing - or fighting, fighting just sounds better, right? - side by side with two random objects they randomly picked up when everything went to chaos. Eren, Armin, and Mikasa were all close together fighting with knifes. Eren was the only one with a gun though. Marco was shooting with his gun while hitting zombies with a hanger, and Jean involuntarily beat the zombies down with a pole the once belong to a clothes rack.

Reiner was still shooting with the attached machine gun, but he was running out of ammo quickly. The brunette had his lower body in the driver's hatch and was shooting with a handgun, and the girl was harshly kicking the heads of the infected while standing on top of the tank. No words were exactly heard, they were all to busy fighting.

"We're out of ammo!" Reiner shouted and glanced worriedly back at his two companions. He noticed the other people and looked at them confusingly before looking back at his friends, decided he'd ask about it later. "We'll get your fat ass out of there and do some actual up close killing," Levi snapped, causing Reiner to frown.

"Nobody asked you shorty!" Reiner shouted back down at him with a smug look. "When this is over, I'll be the one killing you." Levi said deadly, but serious. Reiner's face dropped and he shook his head, looking back at his friends for something.

"I agree with him," the girl said, "just get out."

Reiner rolled his eyes and lifted his built body out of the hatch. He was surprisingly tall to [Name]'s surprise, and very built. Reiner reached back down into the hatch and grabbed a gun then pulled his arm back out. Just like his brunette friend was doing, he started shooting the zombies in the head.

Another loud crash and glass breaking came from inside one of the stores close to them. None of them were in the position to see what it what, since they were all surrounded by the dead and all. But what seemed like seconds, more zombies surrounded them. It was all sudden, too quick to see. But instead of the zombies just coming from the front entrance, it seemed like they were coming from all directions.

More after more kept coming, bunching up with drooling mouths at the sight of humans. The smell was terrible, but [Name] was now used to the rotten flesh smell now, unlike when she first smelt it. "I don't know how long we can keep going. More of them keep coming!" Armin shouted, and [Name] started to regret her choice.

"Just try your best!" [Name] shouted back, trying to sound encouraged but her attempt was weak and Armin saw right through it. Never underestimate a book worm. Armin clamped his mouth shut to prevent from saying anything more.

"There coming from every direction now, we need to leave!" The girl shouted as she killed another zombie.

"How?" Connie shouted back, not taking his eyes off the zombies around him.

"There's probably enough room for all of you in here! Just hurry up!" The girl shouted lastly and hopped into the hatch. Connie quickly made a break for the tank, Sasha right on his heels. Reiner helped them up then literally shoved them down into the hatch. Next was Eren, then Mikasa and Armin, then Jean and Levi.

But both [Name] and Marco were trapped.

"We only have room for one more!" Reiner informed and everyone inside glanced at each other worriedly.

"I'll stay," [Name] insisted and pushed Marco towards the tank while she shot two zombies in the head. Marco quickly shook his head and dug his heels into the ground. "No, [Name], I'll stay."

"No you won't. I'm staying; you're leaving. Now go," [Name] said and tried to push him again but Marco stayed put. Marco looked down at her and smiled down at her sweetly. "You've already done enough for me, it's my time to pay you back," Marco said softly. [Name] frowned and looked at him with confused eyes.

Yes, she did help him out. She accepted both him and Jean open arms, she talked to him whenever he was down, and even helped him forget about all the death he's seen, even if it was for a short while.

"W-What? No! Not with your life, you're leaving and that's final!" [Name] objected. Marco smiled and shook his head.

"No, [Name] you're leaving," Marco said and pushed her forward with easy. Marco looked up at Reiner and mouthed him to take her. Reiner nodded and grabbed [Name] by the arms and lifted her up. [Name] thrashed around trying to make him let go as clear salty tears ran down her cheeks.

"It's fine," Marco assured, "everything will be fine."

But it won't, she thought as Marco walked further into the herd and continued to shoot the zombies.

One shot.

Two shots.

Three shots.

Four shots.

Five shots.

Six shots.

Sev- Marco pulled the trigger but nothing came out. He frowned and smacked his hand against the black handgun and tried again, but got the same result. Marco's eyes widened in terror and his hands started to shake to the point where he dropped his gun and hanger. [Name] watched in tears as the zombies slowly closed in on her freckled friend.

"No! No! Get away!" Marco screamed, but soon his screams were no longer able to make out into words. Just screams. Ear piercing screams as Marco got dragged down by the zombies that crowded around him. Sasha, Jean, Connie, and Armin had tears in their eyes. Eren had his eyes shut tightly and his hands covering his ears to try and block out the painful screams.

Jean wore an angered expression on his face, but the tears streaming down his eyes like a river showed his sadness. Sasha had her head buried into her knees and her eyes shut, but tears still managed to escape. Armin just looked down sadly, small tears forming in his eyes. Connie's fist were clenched and his teeth were pressing against each other harshly, and tears flowed out of his eyes. Mikasa looked sad, but tried her best to mentally block out the screams. Levi just looked away.

But [Name] had it worst of all, because unlike the others, she wasn't safe inside the tank yet. She was outside, on top of it, witnessing her friend's death. The zombies bit roughly into Marco's flesh, one even teared off most of the skin on one side of his face. The screams came to a stop and were replaced with the moans and groans of the human killers.

As [Name] went to scream out Marco's name, Reiner roughly shoved her down the hatch and hopped in right after, shutting the hatch door for good.


	24. Nile Dok

[Name] sat there, her face shoved into Levi's chest as salty tears continued to form and fall out of her glossy [e/c] eyes. For the past ten minutes it had been like this, silent except for the muffled sobs of [Name] and quiet whimpers from Sasha. Levi didn't exactly know what to do in the situation, so he awkwardly put his hand on [Name]'s back and rubbed small circles with his thumb and pointer finger. While [Name] sobbed into Levi's chest and Sasha into her own blood covered knees, everyone else just sat there staring into space.

Connie, Armin, and Eren didn't know what to think. The trio had actually gotten close to Marco in the past week and the half of living inside that mall. Whenever Eren and Jean would get into an argument, Marco was the one to stop it and talk some sense into them. Jean didn't want to believe it. To believe that his freckled friend of over ten years was dead. It wasn't something he could just accept and move on with.

Sure, losing his coworkers in the beginning of this mess hurt him - but he got over it because he didn't know them the well. Jean knew [Name] blamed herself for Marco's death, everyone knew it, but yet none of them had the energy to say anything about it. It was like a dream to them, a very bad dream that they wanted to wake up from.

Except it wasn't a dream, it was reality and there was no waking up from it.

Is this what Petra felt like after losing Auruo? [Name] couldn't understand her pain back then, but know she does. And she doesn't like it, not one bit. Mikasa and Levi were the only ones not upset about it. Sure, Mikasa felt bad but she was never close to Marco. As for Eren, it was like seeing his mother get devoured by those flesh eating monsters, bite by bite. Although it wasn't as bad as that, it was pretty close.

So this is what losing a friend feels like, [Name] thought as she let out another muffled sob into Levi's wet T-shirt. Besides [Name]'s sobbing, the only noise was the engine of the rusty green tank they were in. Reiner had gone through the small door that separated the two parts of the tank, leaving the new acquaintances to grieve by themselves.

"It's all my fault," [Name] muttering into Levi's shirt, breaking the unsettling silence. Eren looked up at [Name] with sad eyes and tried to deny it but no words came out.

"No, it's their fault." Jean snarled, both hands formed into shaking fists. He kept his gaze glaring at the metal floor, and his jaw set. No one had to ask to know who he was talking about, it was out and obvious. "If they hadn't crashed in, and we hadn't helped them out Marco would still be alive."

"Even if we didn't help them, there could still be a chance that one of us would be dead," Levi pointed out bluntly, yet truthfully.

"There's not telling what could've happened. What happened, happened. We just have to try to forget about it," Mikasa added, her eyes boring into the side of Jean's face. How the two of them talked like nothing happened, it sickened him. It made him boil even more with anger, to the point his face started turning red.

"Marco knew what he was getting into when he stayed," Armin spoke staring sadly at his hands, "he knew what the possibilities would be."

Even though what Armin said was the truth, nothing but the cold truth, Jean didn't want to believe it. Someone was to blame for it, and it wasn't [Name], it wasn't the zombies, it was the three strangers that just had to crash their parade of safety. The tank must have hit a bump, or curve, because it threw Sasha and Connie onto the floor.

"What the fuck?" Connie groaned as he slowly sat up. Sasha groaned quietly, but didn't bother to even get up. Instead, she rolled over so she was on her back and shut her eyes. [Name]'s sobs came to a stop and she slowly detached her face from Levi's chest. Levi stared down at her with concern clearly written on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked in a hushed voice so no one could hear him. [Name] bit her lip and gave him a small nod. "Yeah, I'll be fine for now. I hope." She whispered and offered him a weak smile. The corner of Levi's mouth twitched so that he gave an awkwardly sad smile back, which made [Name] bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"I'm going to kill them. I swear it," Jean growls, his knuckles now turning white. [Name] sighed and looked at Jean with red, puffy eyes. "It's not their fault," she said quietly.

"What are you talking about?! Of course it is!" Jean shouted, now looking up at her. His eyes were red and glossy, but his face held so much anger.

"They couldn't help what happened Jean! Just think about it! Marco wouldn't want you to think like this!" [Name] shouted back, her hands now forming into fists. No one else said anything, they all just silently watched, not wanting to get involved.

"Don't you talk about Marco like you've known him that long," Jean snarled, causing Levi to narrow his stormy blue eyes at him, but Jean didn't seem to notice or care. [Name] sighed and leaned back onto the metal wall.

"I may have not known him as long as you have, but I knew him enough to call him my friend. Marco wouldn't want you blaming people about his death, or put his blood on someone else's hands. If anything, blame those things that have killed so many. They were the ones to drive these people into the mall, and they were to ones to end Marco's life," [Name] said calmly, "so if you're going to blame someone, blame them."

The tank came to a slow stop, and then there was muffled and unclear talking before it started moving again. Jean looked down sadly and let out a shaky sigh. "You're right," Jean started quietly, "but it doesn't mean I'm going to forgive and trust those bastards."

[Name] nodded, understanding Jean's view of things. The small space went silent once again, except this time there wasn't even the sound of [Name]'s muffled silence. Was it comfortable or unsettling silence? [Name] didn't have time to tell, because not long after things became silent the hatch squeaked open and the blonde female's face stared down at them blankly.

"Get out," she demanded emotionless then disappeared from their sight. Slowly, one by one of them climbed out of the tank and into a large building that had more survivors in it. Not exactly knowing what was going on, the group stayed close to one another with confused faces.

"Welcome to the MP," the tall brunette from earlier said walking up to them.

"MP?" Armin asked with raised eyebrows.

"Military Police," the man explained. Armin gave an unsure nod. "I'm Bertholdt, but you guys can just call me Bert. The girl was Annie, and I think you already know who Reiner is," Bert continued.

"Why did you bring us here?" Levi asked crossing his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at Bert. Levi and [Name]'s eyes travel around the room with suspicion when Levi's land on the girl, Annie, talking to a tall man with short black hair and dark eyes. The man also had a small amount of facial hair. Levi continued to stare at him, trying to think of where he's seen him before, when Annie gave him a nod and started walking their way.

"Hand over everything in your pockets including weapons," Annie demanded coldly. Levi scoffed and rolled his eyes. "When this world turns normal is when I'll hand over my weapon," he snapped with a straight face. Annie's blue eyes narrowed at him.

"Either you all hand them over, or we'll have to forcibly take them. Your choice," she said as more men from the MP started the circle around them.

"U-Uh, Levi, I think we should just hand them over. These men look kind of.." [Name] whispered to him, trailing off as her eyes darted between the heavily built men. Levi scoffed and glanced at the men. "Fuck no," he said out loud.

"Men," Annie signaled. The one word made the men grab each person's arms and hold them tightly as two others searched their bodies for weapons and any other items that was on them.

"Ugh, let go of me you dumb pricks!" Eren shouted as he struggled against the two men restraining his arms behind him. "Shut up, dog." One of the men spat.

"Get your nasty ass hands off of me you fat fucking pigs!" Levi snapped.

"Let go of me! I'll fucking kill you!" Jean yelled.

"What the hell? Let go of me!" Connie grunted as he struggled.

"Gah! Don't take my chips!" Sasha whined.

"Fucking hell, let go of me you blockheads!" [Name] shouted.

"Idiots, what the hell is wrong with you?" Mikasa growled, glaring at the two men holding her.

"This is bad," Armin mumbled, but it wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear.

"You know.. we could have just done this the easy way if you were to corporate." Everyone looked up to see who the voice belong to. It was the man Levi seemed to recognize earlier, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He knew him from somewhere, but he couldn't place where.

"Who are you?" Eren asked harshly.

"My name is Nile Dok, and from now on I'll be the one you'll listen to." The man, Nile, grinned as the men threw the newcomers into a room then locked the door.

"Who are these people?" Sasha asked rubbing her wrist.

"I'm not completely sure, but we aren't staying here." Levi answered, his gray eyes glaring at the locked door.


	25. Kenny

"Those fuckers! I swear-"

"Jean, just stop." [Name] sighed, her blood stained fingers slowly rubbing circles into her temple as she sat on the cement floor. It's been three hours now - three hours since those 'MP' guys robbed them of any safety and thrown them into the room they were all in. Sasha was sprawled on the floor, small humming noises came from her direction as she lay still on her stomach.

Connie was sat up leaned against one of the four plain white walls with his eyes closed and mouth ajar, [Name] assumed they he was either sleeping or just trying to ignore everyone. Eren, Armin, and Mikasa were away from everyone else, sitting quietly in one of the corners. They'd quietly exchange words to one another, but it always ended short.

Levi had a scowl spread across his face as he leaned against the wall, right next to the door, with his slender arms crossed over his chest. [Name] had wanted to ask him what was wrong and if he knew that man, because from the look in his eyes after the captor revealed his name wasn't something [Name] would pass off as 'normal Levi behavior.'

"I told you we shouldn't have helped them."

"I know. You were right."

"And now we're locked up without any weapons while there are man eating zombies roaming around the world."

"Yeah, it kind of sucks."

Jean glared at the floor, not bothering to even reply to [Name]'s lazy comments. He was right, they were wrong, that's all that really mattered to Jean at the moment. Besides getting out of there, that was probably at the top of his list. "Why did they even bother bringing us here just to take everything we had?" Armin thought out loud, his quiet voice ringing in everyone's ears.

"Don't know, don't care. We're stuck in here and that's the main problem," Levi said bluntly. [Name] sighed and let her upper body fall back onto the cement floor. Her [h/c] hair stuck out in all directions, but she didn't really care. Eren opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when the door made a click sound then opened, allowing a high pitched squeak to fill the hollow room.

"Follow me."

It was Annie. She had a shot gun trapped in between her hands, and a handgun strapped to her right leg. Levi glared at the blonde female and scoffed. "Like I'd ever follow you," he retorted. By now, everyone was fully awake and standing up, listening quietly to their conversation. Annie rolled her eyes then looked over Levi.

"Then it's your lucky day, Boss wants you to stay in here for a little bit," Annie said plainly then averted her gaze to everyone else, "the rest of you, follow me."

Scared for their lives, everyone filed out the door one by one. [Name] was last to reach the door, but was cut short by Levi's hand grabbing onto her elbow. "Don't try anything stupid, and don't get yourself killed. I know that Nile Dick, and I'm pretty sure there are other people in here that I know. I'm going to try and get us out of here, but for now just keep on the low and follow their orders, okay?" Levi asked, his gray eyes piercing into her.

[Name] gave a small nod, her mouth parted but not a sound came out. Levi sighed and pulled her into a small hug, wrapping his arms around her body and resting his chin on her shoulder. "I want to get out of here as much as you do, but that might be a week or so, so I need you to be strong, I can't lose you now," Levi said sincerely into her ear before pulling away from her, "now go and stay alive."

And with that, Levi pushed her out of the room then shut the door, leaving [Name] to follow Annie. [Name] let out a tired sigh then shook her head before following the others. As she walked behind Armin, she couldn't help but stare at the people surrounding her with disgust. Most of them were men, there weren't as many woman as [Name] hoped. And they all either glared at her, or stared at her will eyes full of lust.

One even winked at her, which led her to quickly turn her gaze and mentally gag. Overall, [Name] wasn't comfortable with this place, at all. Suddenly Annie came to a stop and everyone crowded around her, forming a deformed circle. [Name] could see Jean glaring holes into Annie, but he stayed quiet to keep from being killed.

"You guys have to turn that soil-" Annie paused and pointed to the greenhouse attached to the building, after looking around [Name] guessed it was some type of farmer, or builder's shop, "-until I come back. Don't try anything, I'll be having Bert and Reiner watch you guys carefully. You try something, you get killed. Simple as that."

"Why do we have to do this?" Jean asked harshly, not bothering to hide his hate towards her. Annie shifted and stared at him emotionless.

"Because you're newcomers," Annie stated.

"We didn't ask to be here, in fact we want to leave. Now."

"To bad, you can't leave. If you even attempt to, you'll be killed. We have security all over this place and outside of it too, you'll have a very hard time getting out alive." Annie said smugly, a small smirk forming onto her lips.

"Why'd you even bring us here?!" Eren demanded.

"The more the merrier, right?" Annie asked, her head slightly tilting to the right as if she was trying to be innocent. Eren opened his mouth to say more, but we quickly cut off by Annie's cold voice.

"Enough talking. Get to working," she ordered then walked away, Reiner and Bert taking her place. Both of them were armed with guns and blank expressions on their faces. [Name] closed her eyes and let out a sigh, then walked over to the gardening tools and grabbed one before following Sasha into the greenhouse.

"This sucks. This freaking sucks," Sasha complained as she forced the hoe into the soil harshly.

"Don't do that! You'll ruin it!" Reiner shouted from the entrance of the greenhouse. Sasha let out a 'tch' and glared in his direction before doing it again with a smirk.

"Don't make me come over there," Reiner yelled.

"Sasha, just stop. I don't want you getting killed," [Name] sighed and continued to turn the soil tiredly.

"Just what have we gotten ourselves into?" Sasha mumbled staring down at the dirt.

"I don't know, but it isn't a good thing." [Name] answered honestly.

The door opened, the same annoying squeak rang in Levi's ears. While the other have been turning soil, Levi had been standing there in the room with nothing but complete silence. Levi's eyes darted towards the door as a figure dressed in black walked in. They were tall, and pretty built to.

Slowly, Levi's eyes traveled up to the man's face. His blank gray eyes widened slightly, but quickly turned into a glare.

"Kenny." Levi spat, narrowing his eyes even more at the man in front of him.

"That's no way to treat the person who raised you, now is it Levi?"


	26. I Have a Plan

Levi stared - or more like glared - at the man in front of him, the man who had raised him with no love whatsoever, Kenny Ackerman. Levi was a kid of the streets, never knew his birth parents. He didn't really care either, he just did what he had to do to survive. That's when Kenny found him, took him in, and raised him like he was training to join the military.

It was pretty understandable, Kenny was a captain for a part of the military. Levi knew there was something strange about the name the people called themselves - Military Police. That's why Nile seemed so familiar to him.

It all had to do with the heartless man who raised him.

"I should have known it was you when I heard the name 'Military Police,'" Levi growls, his gray orbs not backing down from the harsh glare they were giving. Kenny blinked then smiled like nothing was wrong in the world.

"I'm happy you remembered," Kenny remarked, his innocent yet cocky smile still plastered on his face. Levi rolled his eyes and pushed himself off the wall. Although the height difference between the two was big, the amount of intimidation remained the same.

"Let me and my group out and there won't be a single problem in your little organization," Levi snapped with a scowl. Kenny's smile dropped, but was quickly replaced by a matching scowl. His eyes narrowed and his 'happy' act was gone within a second.

"That won't be happening anytime soon, Levi. I think we both know that. This is a well working organization, and I plan to keep it that way." Kenny said sternly. Levi let out a bitter laugh.

"Oh really? So that includes forcibly kidnapping people and taking away their weapons while there are fucking zombies out there then forcing them to do forced labor?" Levi asked harshly. Kenny growls, obviously not liking Levi's words or tone, then raised his right hand and slapped him across the face, leaving a sting, noticeably red hand print on Levi's right cheek. Levi's head remands turned to his left as his jaw clenched and he let out an angry breath out his nose.

"I thought I taught you not to speak back to me, especially after all the punishment you received for it," Kenny spat, his face angered and showed signed of anger and frustration.

"What are you even doing here? In Idaho?" Levi asked not so nicely.

"That's none of your business, boy." With that being said, Kenny turned around calmly and retreated from the room, leaving the door wide open for Levi to get out. But the first step Levi took out of the door, a gun was pressed up against his head.

"Try anything stupid, you die. Simple as that. Now get walking."

The voice was female, and familiar. Levi glanced back - but only for a second - and saw spots of blonde when he realized that it was the girl from before. Annie, her name was. Levi felt his jaw tighten once again out of annoyance and anger, but he followed her orders anyway.

Gaining their trust is going to be the easy part, Levi thought as a plan formed inside of his mind, but escaping alive will be the hard one.

[Name] didn't know who long she'd been trapped inside the brutal prison. A week? Maybe two? It was pretty hazy. She hadn't exactly seen any sunlight, the only times she had was when she was working in the greenhouse while the sun was still out and it shone through the transparent material.

She'd also noted how noticeably cold it has gotten. It was probably rolling into winter, since when they were taken it was around fall time. Levi had showed up later in the first day they arrived. He didn't say much, but [Name] decided to let him be. He was probably upset about something that she didn't need to know unless he wanted her to.

Right now, [Name] and the others were sitting around tiredly in a deformed circle in their somewhat 'bedroom.' It was exactly as it sounded. A room full of beds. They were all cramped together, and most of them weren't even beds. They were cots, and the ones that were beds were just worn out mattresses that were thrown down onto the floor. There were lost of people who were put in that room - other victims that were unluckily sucked into this mess like them so some people had to share.

[Name] shared with Levi, of course.

Besides all the hard work [Name] had been forced to do or it was 'bam bam' for her, she had actually met a friend. Or what was close to one, anyways. It was a blonde haired girl named Christa, probably the nicest person in the place. She was apart of the MP, but she didn't act like it. The only thing that annoyed [Name] was the brown haired girl named Ymir that was always around Christa, reminding her not to talk to the newcomers.

"We need to get out of here, I'm so tired of this shit." Jean groaned and flopped back onto the twin sized cot. The cot bounced and the springs continued to squeak loudly. Levi looked around to make sure no guards or anything were around before turning back to them.

"I have a plan." He said quietly. Armin's and Eren's eyes widened and Jean instantly shot up.

"Seriously?! What is it?!" Connie asked excitedly; he wasn't a fan of the place either. Levi sighed before a smirk formed on his face, and he leaned in, opening his mouth to expose the plan he'd been carefully working on over the past two or so weeks.


	27. The Plan

The plan was simple, yet difficult at the same time. Levi had spent every day, every second, of their time trapped in the MP's hangout, secretly analyzing the building along with the cruel members. He almost got caught once - almost. The man saw Levi looking around and decided to ask him about, maybe a little roughing up here and there, but it was nothing Levi couldn't handle.

"We've been here for two weeks," Levi started, his hands slightly moving as he prepared to say his plan out loud, "and I've noticed that the stupid guards have shifts and they change out at different times depending what day."

Levi paused and scanned to see the reactions of everyone in the group. [Name]'s eyes were blank and her lips were pursed to the side; almost like she was nervously chewing on the inside of her cheek.

She was.

She knew Levi was smart, but the question was: Was he smarter than all the MP members? [Name] didn't want to doubt Levi, so she stayed quiet as he explained, her eyes sometimes drifting away only to stare blankly at one of the white walls that had spots of missing paint here and there. The other people in the room, people none of them bothered to talk to and vice versa.

"When do you think this plan will become real?" Mikasa butted in, her voice steady but demanding. Her usual coal colored eyes shone with hope, something strange to see on her.

Levi paused, glanced around, then met his eyes with hers. "Tomorrow. At night."

Everyone was taken back when he revealed the date of their escape. It was sudden, almost too sudden. But they all knew they wouldn't get another chance than this. They had to take it while it was still possible. Levi's eyes flickered to his side to see [Name] quietly biting on her lip. Trying to reassure her, he silently slipped his hand over hers and intertwined their fingers. [Name]'s eyes looked up in surprise, but immediately soften and she gave a small smile.

"Did you say tomorrow?" Jean asked as if he didn't hear the raven haired man correctly. Levi snapped out of his gaze with [Name] and glared at Jean. "No idiot, I said next year."

Jean rolled his eyes and surrendered his hands. "My bad."

It was Levi's turn to roll his eyes. "Anyways, yes tomorrow. Right when the sun goes down, the guards switch shifts. It usually takes around five to ten minutes for them to be completely switched and on task. So that means we have five to ten minutes to escape." Everyone else stayed quiet as Levi continued to explain the plan, going over even last detail. While he talked, everyone listened, absorbing the information into their brains and then planting in there.

Nothing could go wrong, or it'd all be pointless.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" [Name] asked, her voice serious. Levi let out a small sigh and looked at her.

"It's our only plan. If anyone else has something better, please do tell." When no one else spoke, they all knew it was clear. Even if the plan wouldn't work out and they'd all either end up dead or as human slaves again ([Name] didn't really see the difference), they still had to try.

"Well that sucks, since we MP's know all about your little plan now."

The voice was feminine, but low and blunt. Everyone's eyes snapped to the opened door to see a tall brunette with freckles sprinkled onto her cheeks and a small blonde right behind her. [Name], Connie, Sasha, Armin, and Eren's mouths fell ajar as they stared at the two females with the MP's symbol on their jackets.

It was Christa and Ymir.

"What she means is that we'll help you," Christa said laughing nervously as she pushed Ymir out of the way. Ymir frowned but stayed calm, acting like she didn't disagree with the plan.

Everyone knew she disagreed with the plan.

"Help? What do you mean help? You guys are with the MP," Eren paused, but his eyes didn't from their harsh glare, "for all we know you guys could be messing with us before you shoot us dead."

Christa sighed, her head tilting downward. Her blonde locks fell carelessly around her shoulders, only a few pieces stayed next to her face to frame it. "You see, Kenny Ackerman killed my mother a very, very long time ago."


	28. Christa's Story

Everyone stared at Christa with wide eyes - shock? Defiantly. Surprise? You bet. "Wait, if he killed your mom why are you working for him?" Connie asked, his olive colored eyes shutting close as he shook his head confusingly. Christa let out a sad sigh and shut the door.

"I doubt he even remembers," she started, "but I have my reasons."

"Revenge?" Eren asked. Christa shook her head. "Not exactly, but in a way, yes."

"What do you mean? How should we even trust you?" Mikasa asked skeptically. Ymir glared at her fiercely. "Fine, don't trust her. It'll just be your own loss."

"It's fine Ymir, you'd be skeptical too," Christa sighed then went on with her story, "my mother never cared for me. I was a bastard - a child made out of wedlock."

"So? About half of the world are made out of wedlock," [Name] said truthfully.

"Yeah, I know that, but my mother was.. She was a daughter of a very rich family, children out of wedlock was forbidden. My biological father denied that he ever slept with my mother which led to her death."

"How could he do that?" Sasha asked, her voice showing confusion and interest in the story.

"He's a Reiss."

[Name]'s eyes widened. The Reiss family was one of the richest British families, if the current royal family was to die out or anything like that, they were to take over. [Name] only knew this because when she was in high school she had to do a project on them. "Wait - so you're basically royalty?"

Christa shook her head. "Nope. Even if I was, it wouldn't matter now. My father ordered me to go by a different name and never return to England again."

"Great, story time is over. Why should we trust you again?" Levi asked rudely, his hand still intertwined with [Name]'s. She side glanced him, but he didn't seem to notice. "I don't like the way Kenny does things around here. And, it'll also be good payback."

"I thought you didn't want revenge?" Armin questioned.

"Payback and revenge are two different things."

[Name] kept in a laughed. "Fine, we'll trust you for now. But if you dare try anything, you're as good as dead." Levi said, seriousness dripping off of every words. "Do that and I'll kill you."

"It's fine Ymir. I give all of them permission to kill me if I turn on them." Their voices cut off when they both walked out then shut and locked the door seconds after. The single flickering light turned off, filling the room with nothing but darkness, just like every night after the clock struck ten. [Name] heard movement and mutters of people getting into their beds and getting ready to sleep.

[Name] did the same and laid down on hers, pulling the warm fabric over her cold body then snuggling into it. Not long after, Levi did the same and wrapped his arms around [Name]'s waist from behind. His face buried into her soft [h/c] hair, and his chest pressed up against her back. Just by his touch, goosebumps formed on [Name]'s [s/c] skin.

"I don't like this one bit," Levi murmured into his hair, his warm breath reaching the back of her neck, sending chills down her spine. [Name] turned over, instead of having her head buried into the blanket, it was now buried into Levi's chest. Her fingertips softly rubbed circles into his side.

"It's going to be hard. I don't want to lose you."

[Name] smiled against Levi's chest. He barely showed his true feelings, so whenever he did [Name] couldn't help but smile. "I don't want to lose you either."

"Ugh will you stop with your lovey-dovey couple talk? I'm trying to get some sleep here!" Jean said annoyingly. [Name] giggled and closed her eyes, deciding to get some sleep too since tomorrow will probably be a long, long day.

The following day they all woke up the same way as always, a member of the MP coming in and yelling at them to wake the fuck up. It was a different guy today, it was everyday, but they all seemed to have that nasty, rude, ordering voice. Yawning loudly, [Name] sat up and stretched before climbing out of bed then following the MP man.

The man lead them to a room they've only been in once before to work in. Like the last time they were in there, they had to cut firewood and stack it in a neat pile. [Name] assumed they were making them do this because it getting closer to winter, another problem in their plan. But they could and would work around it.

Escaping was their only goal at the moment.

"I can't wait till we leave this place," Jean mumbled before he brought his ax down and chopped another piece of wood in half. Connie, who stood next to him, nodded in agreement. They all couldn't wait. Even though they'd be trapped in the outside world with zombies, it was better than being human slaves. At the moment they thought that anything was better than it, actually.

"Keep quiet about it," Levi hissed lowly so the MP's wouldn't hear him. Jean rolled his eyes, but ended up keeping his mouth shut completely. As the men were chopping wood, and the woman were placing the wood in neat, tall piles the door opened then shut. [Name] knew the voice when she heard it.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be guarding with Christa?" The man who lead them to the wood-chopping room asked, uncrossing his arms and turning to the person who walked in unexpectedly.

"I need the eight you recently brought in here."

"What for?" The man asked, his eyes squinting at the female.

"Do you want me to tell Kenny that you're questioning his orders?" Ymir asked with a glare. The man instantly backed down and waved a hand to [Name]'s group. "Go ahead, they're right there." Ymir nodded and walked over to them. They all stopped doing what they were doing and look at her with confusion. Ymir just rolled her eyes.

"Come with me," Ymir ordered then spun around on her heel and walked to the door. The group of people looked at each other questioningly, wondering if they should follow the tall woman.

"Are you coming or not?" Ymir asked impatiently. Sighing, they all followed her out of the room.

"So Kenny wants something to do with us?" Armin asked. Ymir shook her head.

"Lie. You guys really are stupid," Ymir snorted.

"So what are we doing then?" Eren asked, his eyes glancing around the hallway. There were pictures on the walls, pictures from a long time ago.

"Just shut up and act normal," Ymir snapped, and they all obliged.


	29. The Escape (Part One)

Ymir remained silent as she lead them through parts of the building that they hadn't seen before. No wanting to risk anything, the group of human slaves stayed quiet, also. Suddenly Ymir stopped by a metal door that was painted a sky blue, but the paint was obviously old since there were a lot of spaces of the sky blue color missing.

Ymir did a quick look around to make sure no one else was in the area, then quickly opened the door and ushered them inside. "Get in there. Hurry."

Levi rolled his eyes and walked inside the room. One by one the rest of them filed inside. [Name] stepped in a looked around the room; it was almost like a small bedroom but had no furniture in it. The only thing in there besides them was Christa. "Why are we here?" [Name] asked blinking slowly.

"I have an idea."

They all raised an eyebrow. "And?" Eren pushed.

"It involves getting your weapons back, and some new ones." Christa went on. Sasha smiled, her eyes widening. "Seriously?! 'Cause I feel so naked without a weapon."

"I did not need to know that," Eren said cringing. Sasha rolled her eyes at him then turned back to Christa to listen for more details. [Name] glanced over at Levi to see his usual masked face, just expressionless and staring forward. It'd been about two and a half weeks since they confessed their feelings, but [Name] could still tell that Levi was having trouble showing them. It also didn't help that they were being forced as human slaves and that the dead are moving around eating people.

That might just be an assumption, but you never know.

Levi caught [Name]'s gaze and soften his eyes as he looked at her worn out figure. When his eyes met hers, the corners of his mouth twitched like they wanted to smile but couldn't bring themselves to the not-so familiar feeling. He knows that he hasn't been the best boyfriend, hell, the word "boyfriend" in general made him feel uneasy, but even though he didn't show it often, he cared about [Name]. The past two and a half weeks have been nothing but short, small kisses, cuddling, small talk, and the occasional making eye contact while they worked. Sure, he felt bad, but there wasn't much he could really do with the situation they were in. But when they escaped this place, he promised himself that'd he would make it up to her.

Because in all honesty, he was falling for her. Hard, too.

[Name] smiled at Levi when she saw him looking back at her, with only ended up with Levi quickly turning away with a faint color of pink dusting his cheeks. [Name] lightly laughed then turned her attention back to Christa.

"Meet Ymir and me by the pole with the orange paint on it after dinner, because we'll get those weapons and then get out of here," Christa explain, her eyes shining with big hope, like she fully believed that their plan would work out.

"How are we going to get out, anyways?" Connie asked.

"You guys planned it, I'm just going to help along the way."

"What about after we escape? Where would we even go?" Armin questioned, looking worried and unsure about the idea itself.

"Already got that planned out."

"What do you mean 'planned out,'" Levi asked, his stormy gray eyes turning into slits. Christa sighed and shut her eyes, then opened them moments later. "Just trust me on this."

"We should we trust you to begin with?" Mikasa asked coldly, her voice still monotone.

"Like I said, you can kill me if I break your trust or betray you," Christa reminded. The room fell silent, then [Name] sighed. "Either way we have to take the chance." Sasha bit her lip like she was thinking about then raised her hands up and shrugged, "She's right. We have to take the chance."

Levi blinked then uncrossed his arms, he face still remained blank and unreadable. "Fine. We'll trust you."

The group of human slaves sat there, either staring or poking their food with a fork to see if it was even editable. The food they fed their "workers" wasn't exactly five-star restaurant material, and it didn't even come close to being a regular fast food one.

It was way far from becoming that good.

"Are we really going to go through with this?"

"Yep."

The table feel silent again. [Name] could tell everyone was worried about tonight, the night they make their escape. As she was staring off into space and mindlessly biting on her bottom lip, a warm, firm hand rested on her upper knee. [Name] snapped out of her thoughts and worries and turned to see who was touching her, and of course, she came face-to-face with Levi. His hair was slightly greasy from all the sweat and hard work he's been doing lately, and his dirt covered white shirt clung loosely to his torso.

"Yeah?" [Name] asked turning her body so that she faced him completely. "You know it'll be okay, right?" Levi asked, not bothering to take his eyes off of [Name]'s [e/c] ones. [Name] sighed and shrugged her shoulders, her head dropping down slightly.

"I don't really know."

Levi's hand grasped [Name]'s, and by this point the others were having a normal conversation about what they wanted to be in life before the world turned to trash. No one was paying attention to the two lovers. Which in Levi's opinion, was great.

"Don't. I'll be there, with you, right by your side throughout the whole time," Levi assured, his eyes showing no signs of lies or jokes. [Name] blinked then slowly nodded. "Okay."

"Hey, you two lovebirds, c'mon." Sasha laughed as the others started walking out of the dining room. Or whatever they call it. [Name] giggled and rolled her eyes as Levi just scoffed and stood up. "You better watch your mouth, potato girl."

"Potato girl?! Where the fuck did that come from?!" Sasha almost shrieked. Levi stopped in his tracks and slowly turned his head so that he was staring right at Sasha's angered face. "Because that's all you ever ate and you look like one." With that, Levi turned back around and continued to walk ahead of the flustered girl and his girlfriend.

"I don't understand how you like that," Sasha scoffed, her face twisting in disgust. [Name] smiled and shrugged. "I don't really understand it myself, either."

They all stood soundlessly by the pole with orange paint on it. The lights were off, but the sun still shone through the small windows that were up high. The sun would be setting soon, which meant they'd be leaving soon.

Such little time.

Small female like footsteps echoed in the dark lit room then Christa appeared with Ymir standing tall as always right behind her. "You all here?" Christa asked scanning her eyes over the group. [Name] nodded. "Yeah."

"Good."

"Why are we here again?" Connie asked.

"Weapons. That behind that door-" Christa's right arm gestured to the door to their right that was painted black, "-then down a few hallways, some turns, then there's the weapon room."

"This should be easy," Jean smirked.

"And that's where you're wrong," Ymir said bluntly, ruining the moment. Eren frowned, "What do you mean?"

"That room is heavily guarded for many reasons. It has all the weapons, along with some other stuff, and since it's such a big room they need extra guards to be on watch," Christa explained with a sad sigh.

"How many people do they have?" Jean asked, almost wanting to scoff.

"A lot."

"How?" Mikasa questioned.

"Many people think it's a good, safe place. Even before all this happened the MP's were pretty popular in Idaho. Everyone wanted to be one, but it meant you had to have skill and muscle. It was a bodyguard business, after all." Ymir explained.

"People are so stupid.." [Name] mumbled, almost wanting to scoff that people could even thing that the MP was a good place. It was anything but that.

"Whatever, they have numbers, but most of those shitheads don't have half a brain," Levi said, "so let's just get our fucking weapons back."


	30. The Escape (Part Two)

[Name] stood hunched over with Eren in front of her, and Sasha behind her. Christa and Ymir were leading the way with Levi following closely behind them then it was Mikasa, Eren, [Name], Sasha, Armin, Connie, and Jean was on the end. They all stayed silent and tried to make their footsteps as quiet as possible. They couldn't risk being hear or seen, it'd be the end for all of them.

The hallway they were quietly walking in was narrow, long, and plain. The walls and ceiling were plain white (maybe a few old bloodstains here and there) and the floor was only cold, hard cement looking tile. It was like the floors of hardware shops, shiny and slick but also really cold if someone were to talk around on it barefoot. Since the floor was hard as rock and the hallway was narrow and long, they had to be careful. Even the slightest noise would echo loudly down the hallway and would give them away.

Christa turned left once they reached one of the four-way splits in the hallway. Ymir was the only one with a weapon, a small handgun that only had about six bullets left in it. [Name] wondered if the other missing bullets were used for killing zombies, or if they were used on something else. Honestly, she wouldn't be even slightly surprised if it were.

After a few more turns and quietness, they stood in front of the door to the weapon room. The door was just like most of the other doors in the place, heavy looking and probably made of some type of steel or metal. "This is it," Christa said staring at the gray door.

"So what are we going to do? Charge in there or something?" Jean asked while he eyed the door.

"No, stupid. We're going to sneak around, like spies." Eren retorted, rolling his emerald eyes. Jean glared at Eren then looked away, crossing his arms over his chest.

Scoffing quietly, Levi narrowed his eyes at the two boys. "Just shut your fucking mouths. Do you want to get caught?" When neither of them said anything, Levi spoke again. "That's what I thought. Now shut up."

Christa waited until everyone was done talking before speaking, "Eren was right though. We're going to have to sneak past them, it's the only way, really." Eren looked at Jean with a smug face, which Jean rolled his eyes at and ignored him.

Ymir was the one to open the door. She opened it slowly and quietly, but only opened it so there was a small entry. Quickly, they sneaked in one by one, Ymir being last and shutting the door soundlessly. Christa was right, the room was large. Weapons were everywhere, all kinds and types. Anything from guns and knifes to tools and other sharp objects. It was like they made sure almost everything that could be used as a weapon was stored inside the room. But that wasn't the only thing Christa was right about.

Guards. Everywhere. Lots of them, too. They were all either talking to each other and making jokes or quietly strolling around like they were supposed to be doing. They all had the same weapons - machine guns, all types. [Name] didn't exactly know much about guns, only how to reload and shoot them. And frankly, that's all that really mattered now in the world they lived in now.

It was going to be hard, but they knew that. It wasn't going to be an easy trip to Weaponland.

Levi glanced around the corner and saw two guards chatting loudly, obviously not caring about their job. He turned back to face the others with his back pressed up against the wall. He pointed to his side with his right thumb and mouthed "guards."

Sasha and Connie glanced at each other then nodded. [Name] looked at them with question, but once she saw them walking towards the direction Levi just pointed in, she got it. They were going to take them out - one way or another - and let the others sneak by. Quietly Connie and Sasha sneaked up behind the two guards, wrapped their arms around their necks, and strangled them until they passed out.

"Where did you even learn that?" [Name] whispered to them once they gently laid the guards onto the hard floor.

Connie shrugged. "You learn a lot of things where we were from." [Name] nodded, understanding.

The layout to the room was easy but difficult at the same time. The room was a large, open space, but it had rows of shelves. Some with weapons, others with important supplies like ammo. Levi and Mikasa took the guards' guns while [Name] and Sasha took their survival knifes. They weren't that big, but they'd still work to at least injure a guard enough to where they couldn't chase them down. Now the only ones weaponless were Eren, Armin, and Jean.

"I should've gotten a gun," Jean whispered angrily. [Name] rolled her eyes.

"You'll get one eventually. Now be quiet."

Fifteen guards, sixteen weapons, and a few gallons of blood later, the group of escapees were running breathlessly, and bloodily, down the narrow hallway with another eight or so guards running dangerously closely behind them.

"Fucking hell! This is all your fault Jean!" Eren shouted as they turned a corner.

"Oh whatever! I'm not the one who knocked over that shelve!" Jean yelled back, not bothering to take his eyes off the space in front of them. Eren made a growling noise, but was quickly shut up by Mikasa. "Shut up! Both of you! We don't have time for your fighting!"

"We're done! Where are we even going to go?!" Armin shouted as more bullets were shot from behind. Luckily, no one got injured or shot while they were clearing out the guards. That is, until Eren accidentally knocked over a shelve while he was trying to strangle a guard, and that lead them to where they were now. Running. Away from shooting guards.

Great.

"Trust me!" Christa said and turned a different way, a way they didn't come from.

"Where are we going?!" [Name] asked but followed anyways. Christa said nothing, and Ymir acted like she hadn't heard anything. But they all ended up putting their blinded trust into the two MP's. Christa lead them down another new hallway that had a red door at the end of it. There was a single big, red word right above it.

EMERGENCY.

[Name] quickly read the word and prepared herself for zombies. She hadn't seen nor heard any of them in three weeks now. But she was ready for it, for them. And so were the others. After they realized where they were heading, they prepared both their minds and bodies. They were going to be away from this place, not free.

There is no "free" in this world.

Three yards.

Five more shots fired.

Two yards.

Seven more shots fired.

One yard.

Eight shots fired.

Levi was the first one to burst out of the building and into the outside world. Then quickly they all made it out, the smell of death once again reaching their noses. [Name] had forgotten this smell, now smelling it again just wanted to make her throw up all over again.

There zombies. Each and everyone one of them moaning for flesh, their arms outstretched and ready to grab. Blood and saliva drooling out of their rotten mouths, and pieces of torn skin dangling down from their body. They couldn't feel it. They couldn't feel anything. They could only do a handful of things, and they all involved killing humans.

[Name] still wondered why and how these things were made, and who made them. What purpose they hoped to achieve. But right now wasn't the time or place to wonder about those questions, they were getting closer. Both the armed guards and hunger zombies.

"Ugh! I really hate these fuckers!" Jean shouted over the moans and groans as he shot two of them. The guards came bursting out of the emergency door, but only to become run over by zombies. Their screams slowly died out.

"There!" Christa shouted, her left arm pointing straight forward. Everyone looked over at what she was pointing at.

A truck.

A big, tall, black truck.

There were two people in the back of it, shooting, and one person in the drivers seat that was shooting the zombies that go to close with a hand gun. The two in the back were female and male. The girl had long brown hair pulled up into a high ponytail and had thick rimmed glasses, while the man had blonde hair and light blue eyes. The driver had dirty blonde hair and facial hair, not to mention a scowl on his face.

"Who are they?!" Eren asked as he pulled away from shooting down zombies and started running towards the truck like everyone else was doing.

"They're good!" Christa answered and jumped up into the back of the truck. Once everyone else was in the back of the truck and not on the ground, the blonde man shouted at the driver to get going before he turned to face the confused looks of the original group of eight.

"My name's Erwin, welcome to the Scouts."


	31. The Scouts

"This feels like deja vu."

"Yeah, isn't that basically the exact thing those MP's guys said when we first showed up?"

"Oh, yeah!"

"Will you guys shut up?" Ymir snapped, glaring over at Connie and Eren. They did.

"Scouts? That is that anyways?" Armin asked looking at Erwin curiously. After everything that happened with the MP's, he wouldn't be surprised if this was some other type of sick trap. Armin was smart, smart enough to figure out the hardest math problems and answer test answers like it was nothing, but when it came to real things such as trying not to act nervous in front of his crush, most social events, and trying to figure out if someone is lying don't come easy to him.

But lately he's been getting better on the last one.

"It's a group of people I started," Erwin explained, "but it's more of an organization. Nothing like the MP. I swear." Levi stared at him, judging and watching him with his gray eyes. "And why should we trust you?"

"I knew it!" The female Scout said loudly while staring at Levi with a grin. "Hey Shorty. Long time no see."

Levi focused his gaze on the brunette, wondering what she meant. But their was really only one person who called him Shorty without having to learn the hard was not to. "Shitty glasses?" Levi asked squinting at the girl. The girl gasped and put at hand to her heart like she was offended.

"Rude," she gasped then her face turned into a grin, "I'm surprised you're alive."

Levi rolled his eyes and scoffed. "If anything, I'm the one surprised that you are alive." [Name] felt slightly awkward, and for some reason she felt jealous. She didn't know why, she knew that Levi had to have some friends when the world was fine. But the fact that it's a girl that seems to have known him longer annoyed her. What if they've dated? Or were some kind of friends with benefits? [Name] thought, I really shouldn't be thinking about this, in a world like this. Or worrying.

"Hey, you alright? You look like you're going to throw up," Sasha asked looking at [Name] with concern. [Name] blinked and nodded her head, wiping the sweat off her forehead in the process. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired." Sasha nodded, but her face was still covered with concern. "Really, I'm fine. I just need to rest. How about you?"

Sasha shrugged. "Hungry."

[Name] laughed as the truck came to a stop in front of a big building that had a tall, messy looking fence built around it. The fence was about eight or nine feet tall with different types and shapes of wood nailed to it to make it stronger, and their was a electronic gate in the middle. The truck slowly pulled up the the gate then stopped completely. Their was a camera looking down at them and what looked like a microphone and speaker off the the side of the driver's side.

"It's just us," the blonde driver said into the mic. Seconds later that gate started to open, slowly, and almost loudly. Once the steel, gray gate was open the truck drove in and parked just as the gate started closing. The driver got out and started walking towards the large glass doors without saying anything, just swinging the keys to the truck around his finger.

"Follow us," Erwin said hopping off the truck with the still unnamed brunette following. When everyone else was out and off of the truck the brunette spoke.

"I'm Hanji, and this building is the Scout's base," she said while walking to the glass doors. Erwin had already walked in and was talking to another guy with blonde hair. Hanji opened the door and walked in, with Levi and [Name] following right behind her. The others followed them while looking around the inside of their base.

It was almost exactly like the outside, big, white, and silver with lots of windows. "This place used to be a science lab," Hanji explained then opened a white door, "and since I'm a scientist major, I've been trying to find a cure or anything really."

[Name] looked at the small glass cage that sat in the middle of the room. Their were computers and high tech science machines all over, one of them was making an annoying beeping noise. Inside the glass cage was a zombie. His skin was paled and bruised, the once full brown hair was now thinned and falling out, and his teeth were yellow and green.

"And this is Gunther. He used to be a member of the Scouts but then he got bit," Hanji said, her voice softening.

"So you locked him up in a cage?" Eren asked. Hanji shook her head. "He wanted to do it. He hoped that I could try and find information about it."

"Have you?" [Name] questioned.

"Not really. Besides the bite thing and how they turn, I haven't gotten much information. The whole thing is confusing and basically scientifically impossible. They have no heartbeat, and no brain activity. It makes no sense," then she turned back to the group, "enough about that, I'm sure you guys are tired and hungry. Follow me."

Later that night, while everyone was full, clean, and asleep, Eren stood next to one of the top floors windows. The sky was dark, but the moonlight and starlight shined down on Earth, adding a little light while doing so. Eren was in a different change of clothes, some gray sweatpants and a plain white long sleeve shirt. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and his back was slightly leaned back.

He couldn't stop thinking of his bite.

It was still there, blue and pale. But there wasn't anything different about him. His heart was still beating, his brain was still working properly and he didn't have the desire to eat flesh. It's been about two months since he got it. From what he's seen, most people turn within days. They don't even last a week after getting bitten.

But he's been bitten for two months now.

There wasn't any signs of turning. Unlike Petra and Thomas, Eren hadn't paled or gotten bloodshot eyes. His skin was still it's natural tan color, and his eyes were still sea green. He didn't feel sick at all. He felt normal, perfectly fine.

"What are you doing still up?"

Eren quickly turned around to see Hanji in sweatpants and a black T-shirt. Her glasses were slightly crooked and her eyes had bags under them. "Just thinking. You?"

Hanji sighed. "Still studying Gunther."

"Found anything new?"

"Nope."

Eren shut his mouth and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was stare directly at Hanji. "I have something that might help you out, a lot."


	32. New Discoveries

"Well, what is it?"

Hanji stood there looking at Eren with question and curiosity, but yet she couldn't help but show some excitement. If Eren was actually going to tell her something that might help with her difficult time of trying to find or cure, or really anything, about the whole "zombie" situation, she couldn't wait to hear it. Although she only met the boy earlier in the day, she still felt like she had to put a little trust in him.

Eren sighed, glanced away, then looked down at his arm. Hanji followed his gaze. His right arm was covered by a white sleeve, so she was confused as to why he was looking at it with worry. But suddenly, Eren took his left hand and grabbed onto the edge of the sleeve. He paused for a moment, thinking of all the possibilities that could come out of revealing his secret to someone he just met that day, even if she was a scientist.

Might as well just do it and get it over with Eren thought, even if they decide to kill me for it.

Closing his eye tightly, Eren slowly lifted his sleeve up, revealing the bruise color bit that faded into his skin. At first it was silent, Eren with his eyes closed and Hanji staring at his arm with her mouth ajar. Then that silence was broken.

"You're bitten?!"

Eren's eyes shot open and his quickly removed his left arm from his rolled up sleeve to put it up in front of him for defense. "It's not what it looks like," Eren tried explaining, but either way he knew Hanji wouldn't understand it right away. She was going to think it was a recent bite and that he was going to turn.

"What do you mean "it's not what it looks like" Eren?! It's a bite. How is that not what it looks like?" Hanji asked, her hands flailing around in the air as she spoke. Eren blinked and held up his bitten arm once again.

"I got this about three months ago," Eren said lowly. Hanji stared at him.

"You mean three days?" She asked it like he was stupid and didn't understand it himself how the biting process works. Eren shook his head and sighed.

"No, three months. I got it before I even met the others, besides Armin and Mikasa. Most people have changed from an hour to a few days, but I've had this for three months. It hasn't affected me in any way yet, only that it won't exactly heal." Eren lowered his arm but Hanji's eyes stayed glued to it.

"I don't believe you."

Eren sighed once more. Of course it'd be hard to believe, even his closest friends had their questions about it. Eren didn't need to be told about this, he just knew because if it were Armin or Mikasa that got bitten, he'd be skeptical about it also. "I didn't expect you to. But it's true. Ask Mikasa and Armin, I showed it to them before we got captured by the MP."

Hanji closed her eyes and brought her fingers to her temple, shaking her head. When she opened her eyes, she no longer seemed flustered over the situation. Instead, she spoke slowly and reasonable. "Tell me how you got it. Don't leave out any details either."

Eren nodded. "It was when the outbreak first started, in Washington. I was at my college at the time, so were Mikasa and Armin. Then it happened, the zombies broke in and started eating everyone in sight. My friend, Thomas, and I got stuck, we were surrounded by them. Thomas got bit, and so did I, but the thing was is that he turned in less than four days and I didn't. I still haven't, and it actually scares me in all honesty. So I've basically kept it hidden except for Mikasa, Armin, and now you. I haven't noticed any symptoms like Thomas or Petra, a girl we met about a month ago, had before they turned. No one has noticed anything either."

Hanji stayed silent for awhile taking in the information, trying to decide whether or not to believe his story. It didn't sound made up, but Hanji has learned over the past three months that people lie really good when they are on the brink of death. Finally, she came to a conclusion.

"If what you're saying is really true, then you shouldn't turn within a week. Everyone turns in less than a week. I want to put you in a cell, very similar to the one Gunther is in. In fact, it'll be in the very exact room. One week. I will study you and ask you questions. You won't be fed very much because if you really are lying and are going to turn, I don't want to have to waste food," Hanji said boldly, her voice full of seriousness.

Eren thought about it for awhile, realizing that it'd be the best way to prove his honesty and also that he didn't have a say in the matter. He at Hanji and nodded, agreeing with the plan. A faint smile played over Hanji's mouth, "Great. Now follow me."

"What the hell is this?!" Mikasa yelled angrily. Hanji blinked but said nothing while Erwin took a breath before he explained the situation to them. After Eren told Hanji about the bite and agreed to her plan, Hanji woke Erwin and informed him about the situation. At first he was bewildered and not very convinced, but in the end he went along with it.

[Name] stood there confused with a frown on her face. When they all woke up, Eren wasn't in bed. They searched for him all over the building, but there was no sign of him. Finally, getting worried and angry, Mikasa stormed into both Erwin and Hanji's rooms and woke them up demanding an explanation as to why Eren was gone.

"He is bitten," Erwin said, his eyes staring directly into Mikasa's, "but his story doesn't seem right."

[Name] was shocked. Eren, bitten? When did that happen? Was it during their escape? If it was, [Name] obviously didn't notice it, and by the looks of it no one else did either. Connie, Sasha, and Jean were also shocked. Levi's face remained neutral, like usual, but anyone could tell that he was pissed off about it. Mikasa was just angry, and Armin stared blankly looking sad.

"What do you mean his story doesn't seem right?" Connie asked, confused.

"He said he got it three months ago," Hanji answered then turned to Mikasa and Armin, "and he said you two knew about it." All eyes were on the duo now, questioning and confused eyes. Armin looked slightly nervous, and Mikasa's anger went down and her voice lowered to where it was almost a whisper.

"Yeah, we knew about it."

"So is it true?" Erwin questioned.

"That it was from three months ago? Yeah."

Levi's face stayed in it's "pissed off" expression as the conversation continued. Erwin and Hanji asking Mikasa and Armin questions to fill in the gaps of Eren's story. The others didn't know what to say about it. Overall, they were all surprised and shocked. Levi and Jean were more mad about it than shocked.

"So did any of you notice anything strange about him? And symptoms?" Hanji asked. Everyone shook their heads, answers like "no" and "nothing" chorused through the group. Hanji and Erwin nodded.

"That'll be all. You guys will be able to see him soon, we just want to do a few tests on him first," Erwin explained, him and Hanji turning to walk away towards Hanji's lab.

"Wait, tests? What kind of tests?" [Name] asked worriedly. Hanji glanced back.

"Don't worry. It's nothing that can kill him, or hurt him." Then they walked off, their footsteps echoing in the silent building until they were completely unheard. Everyone just stood there silent, not really knowing what to do or say.

"That idiot," Levi grunted, rolling his eyes and turning towards the direction the kitchen was in and walking away from the group. [Name] stared after him as he strolled down the hallway, but she didn't say or do anything about it. She just let him go. As if it wasn't noticeable, her and Levi were already drifting. The whole MP business made it difficult, and now the Eren thing could only make things worse.

Sometimes [Name] just wished she and Levi could sit on a couch and watch a movie. Like everything was normal. No zombies, no anything. Just her and him, together. But for some reason, she felt that he didn't feel the same. She couldn't exactly say why, she just felt it. From his attitude and body language.

"I can't believe he's bitten," Sasha whispered staring down at the floor. If he were to die and turn, it'd be like watching Marco die all over again.

"I can't believe he would get himself killed like that," Jean retorted, earning a glare from Mikasa, but in her head three months ago, she was thinking the exact same thing. [Name] sighed and pulled her [h/c] hair into a ponytail.

"Let's just leave it to them to deal with right now. There's nothing we can really do about it anyways," she said, looking at every person seriously. None of them moved or said anything, but they all agreed with it in their heads. Silently, they all walked down to the kitchen to get something to eat, and to hopefully take their minds off of Eren for the time being.

"So you told them?" Eren asked as Hanji shut the lab door and locked it. Erwin nodded.

"Yeah. They took it pretty well, I would say anyways." Eren sighed of relief, but he couldn't help but feel bad about not telling the others. They were probably mad and upset with him right now. But that wasn't something he could control, it was just something he'd have to deal with later when he got to talk to them. Ignoring the awkward and quiet groans and moans from zombie Gunther on the other side of the lab, Hanji walked over to Eren's cage, holding a clipboard to her chest.

When Eren looked at her confusingly, she couldn't help but grin from ear to ear. "Time for Test One: Bite Examination."

[Name] sat down on a bar stool at the end of the counter, away from everyone else. Connie was attempting to lift up the mood, but was failing miserably when everyone ignored him, glared at him, and when Jean got up and walked to the table on the other side of the room, right next to the glass windows.

[Name] stared silently at her plate, scrambled eggs just laying their begging to be eating but she just wasn't hungry. Or maybe she was, but either way her mind was to full of thoughts that she didn't even feel hungry.

"You should really eat something."

[Name] looked over to her left and saw Levi taking the seat next to hers, setting his own place of eggs down before pulling out the stool then sitting on it and grabbing his fork. He quickly stuck his fork into a piece of egg and brought it up to his mouth, chewed, then swallowed. When he felt someone staring at him he glanced over at [Name] and made eye contact.

"What?" He asked. [Name] shrugged.

"Nothing," she said then looked back down at her untouched food. Levi watched her stare blankly at her food. "It's going to get cold," he pointed out. She shrugged.

"You can have it if you want."

Levi blinked and shook his head. "No, you need to eat. You're nothing but skin and bone now, don't think I haven't noticed." [Name]'s eyes slightly widened, it was true. She had lost a lot of weight over the past three months. It was mainly because the MP's barely fed them anything, if anything at all. And due to that, her stomach shrunk making her lose most of her previous appetite.

"I'm not hungry," [Name] sighed, pushing the plate away. Levi frowned and reached out, shoving the plate back towards her. "Eat."

"I'm not hungry," [Name] repeated.

"I don't care," Levi shot back. [Name] glared at him.

"No."

"Just do it."

"I'm not hungry."

Levi sighed, closed his eye then spoke. "Eat or I will forcefully shove the eggs down your throat and make you swallow them." [Name]'s face dropped and she looked back down at her still untouched eggs. When Levi opened his eyes, [Name] already had a forkful of egg put in her mouth. Suddenly she yanked the fork out and quickly swallowed the eggs. Levi looked at her questionable.

Slowly, [Name] turned to face him with an upset face. "They're cold." Levi rolled his eyes, taking her plate then walking to the microwave, yet he couldn't help but smile inwardly.

"Bite.. Examination?" Eren asked, his voice was unsure and nervous. Hanji's grin didn't fade, but she nodded.

"Yes, that's what I said. Now stick your arm out," Hanji ordered sitting on a chair and rolling over to a high-tech computer. Eren looked around the glass cage confusingly, trying to figure out where she wanted him to stick his arm out, but there wasn't any holes except for the small ones on the top of the cell to let oxygen in.

"Where do I-" Eren was cut off when Hanji typed away on the computer and a part of the glass shifted, creating a small hole that was just right for his arm, "-never mind." Eren put his arm through the hole as far as he could. He wasn't wearing a long sleeve anymore, just a regular black T-shirt and old basketball shorts.

Hanji rolled back over to the glass cage on her chair and took hold of his right arm. She had already put her gloves on just in case. "Does this hurt?" She asked pressing her fingers to the bite.

"Not really. Just a little bit," Eren answered. Hanji nodded and removed one of her hands to grab and scalpel. Eren's eyes widened when he saw the silver medical tool.

"W-What are you going to do with that?"

Hanji grinned, almost evilly, at him and held up the scalpel. "You'll see."


	33. Tests

After everyone was done eating (quietly and awkwardly, might I add), [Name] decided to explore the building, since searching for Eren didn't really count because she wasn't really paying attention to her surroundings. [Name] was wearing grey sweats with a loose fitting blue jackets. The zipper was zipped up only halfway, revealing her black tank top underneath.

[Name] walked quietly done the quiet hallway. The walls were painted white with nature pictures scattered over it. One was a picture of a baby elephant and it's mother, their trunks wrapping around each other in a loving way. [Name] thought it was adorable, but then she wondered out the outbreak affected the animals. Did they get bitten and turn? Did the zombies even show interests in them? Or did they all just die from being eaten alive and didn't turn?

These were questions Hanji would probably know. So, [Name] spun around on her heel and walked to Hanji's lab.

Eren's eyes were open in horror as Hanji brought the scalpel closer to his bitten arm. "I'm not comfortable with this!" Eren cried out as the cold metal finally made contact with his tan skin. Hanji raised her eyebrow then smiled, "Too bad."

Eren cringed when Hanji pressed the sharp side of the scalpel into the bite. Blackish-red blood came running out, small drops of it rolling off and falling on the floor. Hanji pulled the scalpel away and set in on a paper towel then she turned to Erwin who was silent but watching closely.

"You're going to have to have Eld or someone clean this up afterwards, it could lead to an infection or turning," Hanji said quickly then turned back to Eren with a swab in her hand. Eren already knew what she was going to do - take the blood sample from the bite and run tests on it.

After Hanji put the blood covered swab in a plastic tube, she bandaged up Eren's arm. "That's it for now," she explained, wrapping the white cloth around the bite. Eren sighed as Hanji and Erwin walked back out of the room. Later on in the day, Eld, the blonde they saw talking to Erwin when they first arrived, came in with a tray of food and a mop. He gave Eren the tray, which was nothing but an apple and juice pouch, then he quietly mopped up the blood and left.

Eren sighed then bit into the apple.

"Oh, hey [Name]," Hanji greeted once she stepped out of her lab and saw the [h/c] haired girl, "whatcha need?"

[Name] smiled shyly. "Well, I actually have a question." Hanji gave her a curious look. "What is it?"

[Name] sighed, "Do animals get infected too? Or to the zombies not pay them any attention?" Hanji was kind of surprised from the question, but mostly she wondered why [Name] wanted to know it. Of course she knows the answer, she is a scientist after all.

"Zombies don't give them a first thought," Hanij explained, "their only objective is to eat and kill humans." [Name] frowned.

"How come? I still don't get any of it."

Hanji glanced out the window, her eyes following a brown feathered bird that was flying off into the distance. "I honestly don't get it myself. I've tried to brainstorm about it, but yet I get nothing that scientifically makes sense. The whole zombie thing doesn't even make sense to me. But I do know that it was man-made. Someone created this thing."

"Why would they do that? They could die too."

Hanji closed her eyes. "Maybe it wasn't on purpose, or maybe it was but they weren't expecting it to end up like this. Or maybe all of it went according to their plan. No one knows except the person responsible."

[Name] stood there, thinking about what Hanji just said. She was too deep in thought that she didn't even notice Hanji walk away.

"Hey."

[Name] turned to where the voice came from, surprising herself it was Jean. "Oh, hey."

The hallway went silent once again, neither one of them knowing what to say to the other. Ever since the Marco incident Jean hasn't really talked to anyone unless it was out of anger, so him suddenly walking up to [Name] and saying 'hey' like everything was normal was strange.

"How are you holding up?" [Name] asked, breaking the awkward and uncomfortable silence. Jean looked at her and shrugged.

"Not exactly sure. I still want to bash every MP person in the head, but other than that I'm perfectly fine."

[Name] couldn't help but laugh at his reply. Once Jean heard the sound of her laughter he couldn't help but crack a smile himself. But then the laughter died down, and the smile faded. "How about you?"

[Name] sighed, knowing that he was going to ask that. She didn't really want him to, because everything was just a mess of confusing thoughts in her mind. "I don't know," [Name] replied honestly.

"What do you mean?" Jean asked curiously.

[Name] shrugged. "With the whole Eren thing, The Scouts, and things with Levi, oh, and not to mention how confused I still am about the zombie situation," she explained then sighed again.

"Yeah, the thing with Eren is.. different, I guess. I'm just pissed off at him for being so stupid, and The Scouts are something knew, but it's better that being with the MP's, right?"

[Name] chuckled. "A lot better."

Jean grinned then frowned right after, "And I don't know about the whole Levi thing. That's probably something you should talk to Sasha about." [Name] could tell that he felt awkward even saying that, but she shrugged it off.

"I probably will anyways, but thanks for lifting up my mood, even if it wasn't by much." Jean smiled. "Anytime."

"I feel likes it's been forever since I've talk to you," Sasha pouted once [Name] found her in the kitchen and sat next to her.

"Yeah, it really does feel that way," [Name] agreed. They've only been at the Scouts' base for one night, but it seemed like a week to them. When [Name] walked in and sat next to Sasha, it had almost felt like two friends that haven't spoken in years. Sasha bit into her banana.

"So what's up?"

"A lot of stuff," [Name] replied with a sigh. Sasha swallowed and raised her eyebrows.

"Things with Levi?" She questioned. [Name]'s face changed and Sasha could tell she was right. "Do tell."

[Name] looked down at her hands, examining the lines and creases on her palms. "I don't know. It just seems like we're more distant, you know? It's kind of hard to explain, but it feels like he's drifting, or that he doesn't want to be with me anymore. I could just be overreacting."

Sasha had finished her banana while [Name] talked and was now throwing away the yellow peel. "Maybe it's just because of everything that has been happening lately. Marco, the MP's, The Scouts, and the Eren thing, it's kind of hard to take in."

[Name] stared blankly at her hands for a few moments. "I guess," she said with a shrug. Sasha sighed.

"I'll go talk to him then," she announced and stood up from the stool. [Name]'s eyes immediately widened and she quickly spun around on the stool, "No!"

But Sasha was already gone, looking for Levi. [Name] groaned and buried her head in her hands.


	34. Halloween Special

A Few Months Earlier..

Connie pulled the cap off the black Sharpie and looked for the earliest unmarked day. Once he found it he quickly wrote a big X on it and put the Sharpie away. Looking back at the calender, Connie realized what day it was.

"It's Halloween!" Connie shouted excitedly with a big grin on his face. Eren, who was near by and had heard the shout walked over to Connie.

"It's what?" He asked, not have hearing Connie clearly earlier.

"Halloween," Connie said again, "you know, where you dress up and stuff."

"I'm pretty sure he knows what Halloween is, Connie," Sasha laughed while she walked over to them. Connie rolled his eyes.

"I was just making sure!"

"Halloween has always been Connie's favorite holiday," Sasha explained to Eren. Eren nodded, understanding. After all, everyone has a favorite holiday.

"I can't help it," Connie whined, "Halloween is just so.. fun!"

"Someone say Halloween?"

Everyone looked over and saw [Name]'s head peeking over a corner. Strands over her [h/c] hair were carelessly thrown on her face, but she didn't seem to mind it. Her [e/c] orbs were bright with amusement and there was even a small grin on her face.

Connie nodded excitedly. "Halloween is today!"

[Name]'s face broke out into a smile and she quickly hopped out from behind the wall. "We should celebrate! It's not like we have anything better to do, stuck in this mall and all."

"Celebrating Halloween is pointless," said the one and only Cold King. Everyone's faces paled except Connie's, who still had the Halloween spirit.

"No it's not," Connie shot back.

"There's zombies surrounding the mall, it's basically been Halloween since this shit started."

"Well.. yeah, I guess. But still!" Connie sighed, placing a hand to his forehead and closing his eyes, "you wouldn't understand."

Levi remained quiet for a few moments then shrugged. "Probably not."

"Levi.. have you ever celebrated Halloween at all?" [Name] questioned, curiosity getting the best of her.

"No."

Connie's jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief. "What?! How couldn't you?! Halloween's like the best holiday ever!" Connie went on and on about how "amazingly awesome" Halloween is while Levi just stood there uninterested.

"You get to scare people and-"

"You seriously never celebrated Halloween?" Sasha asked, interrupting Connie's Halloween speech.

"I didn't have a normal childhood," Levi shrugged.

"Obviously," Eren mumbled quiet enough no one heard.

"Then that just means we have to give you a little bit of Halloween spirit!" [Name] exclaimed with a grin. Levi frowned. "No."

"Why not?!" Connie groaned.

"I don't need any of your 'Halloween spirit,'" Levi grunted then walked away, obviously annoyed by the situation. [Name] frowned as he turned right and out of their sight.

"We're going to throw a party," Connie announced.

"We are?" Eren asked, unsure.

"Yep. We're going to show that jerk what Halloween's all about," Connie explained then went to get started. Sasha, Eren, and [Name] all watched him walk away, or well, skip away.

"He's way to into this," [Name] breathed.

"Maybe just a little bit too much," Eren agreed.

Sasha groaned and face palmed. "Every fucking year."

"A little bit to the right," Eren ordered. [Name] moved the decoration slightly to the right.

"There. Is that better?" She asked.

"What are you guys doing?" Jean asked, Marco, Armin, and Mikasa standing right behind him with matching confused faces. Sasha smiled and held up two balloons; orange and black.

"Throwing a Halloween party. Duh."

"Halloween?" Armin asked.

Connie snapped around, "Where you dress up and get-"

"We know what Halloween is," Mikasa interrupted. Connie's face dropped with a frown and he turned back around to putting up decorations, mumbling things under his breath.

"I'm just wondering why," Armin explained with furrowed eyebrows.

"Connie wants to show Levi the 'Halloween spirit,'" [Name] explained.

"Why?" Jean asked.

"Because he's never celebrated it before," Sasha blurted.

"I'm actually not surprised," Marco shrugged, "he doesn't exactly seem like that type of person."

Eren flicked one of the plastic skeletons that hung from the wall. "He said he didn't have a normal childhood."

"It's sad, really," [Name] mumbled.

"And that is the exact reason why we're doing this," Connie encouraged. "Mind helping?"

The group of four all glanced at each other then shrugged. "Sure," Jean agreed.

Music blasted through the mall's walls, sounding muffled to where Levi could only hear the song's beat. Levi frowned and stood up, walking towards where the music's source was. As he neared closer, the music got louder and clearer. The song was This is Halloween, he only recognized it from his old friend Hanji forcing him to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas with her back in college.

Levi stood in front of a store. The display windows were covered with black paper and the entrance was covered with skinny strands of orange and black papers that went all the way down to where they touched the floor. The music was perfectly clear now, and loud. Levi rolled his eyes and stepped through the strands of hanging paper, but only to be screamed at.

"Happy Halloween!"

As quickly as the words entered his brain, someone was behind him and putting a long, black cape on him. "I knew the Dracula look would be perfect!" [Name] giggled as she watched Levi's deadpanned expression.

Connie was dressed as Jason, Sasha as a banana, Eren as Spider-man, Marco as a Cowboy, Mikasa as Murder Alice in Wonderland, Jean as Batman, Armin as Captain America, and [Name] as Cat-woman.

Levi couldn't help but stare at [Name] for a little longer. She was in leather after all.

"Fine, but only for a little bit," Levi mumbled. But everyone heard it, and when they did, they couldn't help but cheer. Levi couldn't help but smile a little bit.


	35. A Date?

"Levi! There you are!" Sasha pants as she sprints towards Levi. Levi raises an eyebrow and turns to the direction of the voice. Once he sees Sasha, he rolls his eyes and turns back around, ignoring her presence all together. Levi was sitting in one of the few random chairs that were scattered around in various places and corners. He was tinkering around with his gun.

Sasha eventually stopped sprinting once she was close enough to Levi. "This place is so big," she mumbled while she panted.

Levi sighed, "What do you want Potato Girl?"

Sasha frowned at the annoying, but true, nickname. "I was talking to [Name]."

"So?"

"She told me some things," Sasha sang with a grin. Levi snorted.

"Like what?"

"She feels like you two are drifting," Sasha said bluntly. Levi stopped running his fingers over his gun and frowned. "What?"

Sasha shrugged, "I mean, it does seem that way. You barely show your feelings towards her and it's upsetting to her. And with everything that's happened.."

Levi sighed and closed his eyes. Of course [Name] would feel like that. He himself has felt it, and the whole feelings deal is just new and strange to him. He's never been one to express his feelings unless it's anger, annoyance, or hate. Things like love, liking, and caring feel weird and alien to him.

"Where is she?" He asked once he opened his eyes again.

"Last time I saw her was in the kitchen.." Sasha barely got the words out when Levi brusquely pushed past her and left. Sasha sighed, but then smiled right after, hoping that they could fix whatever problem stood in the way.

"[Name]."

[Name] groaned and turned her head the opposite direction the noise came from. She didn't know why, but the person wouldn't stop shaking her. She could feel their hand wrapped around her shoulder, loosely shaking her, but she didn't want to wake up. She wanted to sleep, and that person is getting in the way.

"[Name]," they said again, slightly louder than the last call. [Name] tried swatting their hand away, but failed.

"[Name], you need to wake up," the voice warned with a sigh. When [Name] showed no sign of waking up the person detached their hand from her shoulder and walked away. [Name] breathed of relief and relaxed, trying to go back to her dream that made no sense whatsoever.

Just as the darkness of sleep was in reach, loud banging and clanging ruined it. [Name]'s head snapped up, as did her eyes. Levi stood in front of her with two glass cups in his hands.

"Oh, you're awake," he realized then set the cups on the table. [Name] blinked several times before adjusting to the light.

"What are you doing?" She questioned.

Levi threw an envelope at her then watched her eye it confusingly. "What is this?" [Name] asked.

"Don't open it until eight," Levi instructed then turned, "got it?"

[Name] nodded, "Yeah, sure." Levi gave a short nod and walked away, leaving [Name] in a daze of confusion. [Name] looked back at the letter then back at the direction Levi disappeared to, wondering what the letter had to say.

When the clock turned eight and the night set in, [Name] was quick to rip open the envelope and scan the paper inside.

Meet me on the roof.

-Levi

[Name] furrowed her eyebrows, not even knowing that there was a way up to the roof. Sighing, she started to wonder around the large building, trying to find the stairs to the roof.

After what seemed like five years, [Name] finally stumbled across some stairs that lead upwards, onto the roof. She walked up them, curious why Levi wanted to meet her there. It seemed weird compared to his lately distant self. When she reached the top of the stairs she pushed open the door.

A soft breeze bit at her exposed skin, creating small, little bumps. Her hair flew carelessly behind her as the door slammed shut on it's own. It was dark out, but the candles that moved and flickered with the wind lit a path for her. Thoughts of different kinds ran through her mind. Looking back at the door, then at the candles, [Name] decided to go with the candles and followed them.

The candles were on each side of her, evenly spread apart. [Name] followed them around the roof, which was actually pretty large, until the candles suddenly grew more apart, instead of forming a small path they started to form a circle.

With Levi inside it.

[Name]'s eyes widened. There was Levi, standing next to a table that had two of it's own candles on top of it. Smiling, [Name] stepped closer to him.

"What is this?" She asked for the second time today.

Levi glanced back at the table and shrugged before turning back to [Name]. "A date?"


	36. I Love You

"A date?" [Name] asked, confusion thickly laced in her voice. Her brows were slightly furrowed, and the expression of surprise on her face was easily noticed by one glance. Levi looked back at the candle lit table, his own expression being awkward and uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean we've never really had one.." Levi trailed off, not exactly knowing what else to say. This wasn't his first date, but it was the first serious one. All his previous dates were lame and cheap ones, and the girl was never interesting enough for Levi to ask for another. But here he was, on a serious date with an interesting girl.

"And you did this all by yourself?" [Name] asked, not very convinced by the idea that Levi suddenly set up a cheesy romantic date. Romantic was exactly his style, and [Name] knew that.

"Well, I kind of had Sasha help a little," Levi replied, his left hand scratching the back of his neck. [Name] sighed then laughed right afterwards.

"Of course," [Name] breathed through her laughs, "I'm guessing she told you about mine and her's conversation?"

Levi paused, then nodded. "Yeah, about that-"

"Don't worry about it," [Name] assured, "it's just stupid girl feelings that are bipolar. You really didn't have to do this." Her eyes gestured to their surroundings.

"Actually, I did," Levi blurts, taking a step towards [Name] and grabbing her hands in his, "I've been a terrible boyfriend." The word boyfriend felt foreign to him. [Name] looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

"You already know that I'm not good with feelings," Levi started, locking his eyes with [Name]'s [e/c] ones, "but.. I think I'm ready."

"Ready? For what?" [Name] asked.

Levi looked at her, trying to hide his nervousness. It was strange talking like this, talking about this. But he needed to do it, not matter how uncomfortable it made him. He needed to stop being the emotionless man he was raised as, it only makes him stoop to Kenny's level, and he didn't want that.

"I love you."

The three words were quick, rushed out of his mouth. His brain instantly started piling ideas in his mind about why he shouldn't have done what he just did and how much he'd regret it. He didn't know what to expect from [Name]. What if she didn't believe him? What if she thought he was joking? All the bad scenarios kept coming.

"W-What?" [Name] asked, surprise and confusion not bothering to hide in her tone. Her eyes are blinking fast, almost like she didn't believe what she just heard and saw come out of his mouth. Levi looked down and mumbled the words again.

"I love you."

[Name] heard them correctly and clearly this time. Mouth ajar, and eyes wide, she stared at Levi in surprise. "Levi.."

"I know what you're thinking," Levi quickly added," that I'm not serious about it, but I am. I don't want to be like this anymore, but it's going to be difficult for that to happen." His hands squeezed reassuring around hers. [Name] was at loss for words.

"I don't know what to say," [Name] admitted.

"That's okay, perfectly fine. I know it's a huge surprise."

"It's just.. different. This isn't like the normal you," [Name] replied.

"That's the point," Levi explained, "I don't want to be like the normal me."

"Are you saying you want to change?"

"For you, at least."

[Name] smiled, pleased by Levi's attempt to be more romantic. Although she was still surprised by the fact that he told her he loved her, she couldn't deny the facts about herself.

"I love you too, Levi," [Name] admitted, her smile never disappearing. Levi blinked and looked away, but even in the candle lit light, his blush was still visible. [Name] giggled and placed her hands on his cheeks, turning his head to face her then pulling him to her lips. Levi smiled into the kiss and roughly - but sweetly - kissed back.

His arms got tangled around her waist and her hands got tangled in his hair. His lips are soft, but at the same time aren't describable. Levi backed [Name] up against the table, making her bump into it and make the glasses wobble. [Name] pulled away to check the table, but before she could even turn to look at his Levi grabbed her face and started kissing her again.

Different? Yes.

Good? Absolutely.


	37. Candidate Zero

Hanji sat in her gray chair, her eyes squinted as she watched Eren's blood slowly move around in the thin, long, clear plastic tubes then drop by drop, drip into an empty glass tube. The lights were off, all except for the bright lamp that sat on Hanji's desk. Eren was asleep, his soft snoring giving the room some sound.

Hanji blinked, her eyes getting tired and dry from staring for too long. But she couldn't help it, she hit a breakthrough. It didn't take long to study the cells in Eren's blood and then put together a possible candidate for a cure. This was her first candidate, Candidate Zero. Her idea was to try and separate the zombie DNA from Eren's immune one.

To do that, the blood had to be carefully watched and moderated. Gunther would be her first test subject, and if it didn't work she was sure she could get more by sending Eld and Erwin out.

Hanji had basically put together a concentrate that could turn oil into gas, except it was being used to extract the zombie DNA. Hanji sighed and leaned her head back. She didn't know how long it'd take for the tube to be filled, but by the progress she's made so far, she guessed it'd be awhile.

So all night, Hanji stayed up sleep deprived and a mess, just watching the blood circulate through the plastic, bendable tubes then slowly drip into the small glass one.

Drop by drop, Hanji waited for it to fill.

[Name] woke up to blinding light and arms securely wrapped around her body. After a couple of blinks, [Name] looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. When she realized she was on the roof, the memories of last nights events rushed into her mind.

[Name]'s eyes wondered to her scattered clothes and she couldn't help but blush. Carefully removing Levi's arms, she grabbed one of the two blankets and wrapped it around her bare body, leaving on to cover Levi's. Levi mumbled something then turned around, snuggling into his own arms.

[Name] smiled at him, then quickly turned around to pick up her clothes and put them back on. All the candles were put out, and the food stayed cold and untouched on the table.

Once [Name] was done putting her clothes on, she threw the other blanket on Levi and quietly sneaked away, wanting to eat and take a shower. She softly closed the door to the roof then sped down the stairs.

"And where do you think you're going?"

[Name] stopped and reluctantly turned around to see Sasha leaning against the door frame with a knowing smirk on her face. [Name]'s eyes nervously glanced around the hall.

"Oh, you know. Food. Shower. I'm actually quite hungry, so I'm just going to go," [Name] pause and turned her body to the left, "like now."

As [Name] walked down the hallway to the kitchen full of shame, Sasha's laugh echoed through the hall, taunting [Name] like an attached demon. [Name] groaned, wishing that Sasha would just find some food and forget about their little run-in.

But sadly, the universe doesn't like to work in [Name]'s favor.

Connie squinted at the back of Jean's head with his tongue barely hanging out. Jean was trying to sweet talk Mikasa, who wasn't having any of it. After Sasha came running into the lounge and told everyone about the little date she help set up for Levi for [Name], Jean went into a great depression and now he's trying to pull some moves on Mikasa.

"There," Connie muttered to himself, then let go of the rubber-band. An almond forcefully smacked into the back of Jean's head.

Jean instantly sat up, "What the hell?!"

"Something wrong?" Connie asked innocently while quickly tucking his homemade slingshot under his thigh. Jean glared at Connie, then his eyes looked down at the almond that lied perfectly still on the couch. Quickly, Jean grabbed it then chucked it at Connie.

"No!" Connie shouted, jumping out of the black chair before he could get hit. Jean huffed then sat back down, returning his arm on the back of the couch, right behind Mikasa's head.

"Now, have I ever told you that your hair is just beautiful?"

The last drop dripped into the glass tube.

"What is that?" Eren asked from his cage, eyeing Hanji has she grinned at the blood filled tube.

"Candidate Zero," Hanji answered picking up the tube and a syringe.

"Candidate Zero? What's that mean?" Eren questioned.

Hanji stuck the end of the syringe's needle into the blood and sucked it up, "It's the first candidate for a cure, and I'm going to use it on Gunther."

Hanji set down the now empty tube and walked over to Gunther's cage with a blood filled syringe. Gunther reacted to the smell of blood and instantly pressed his torn face up against the glass. Hanji presses on of the buttons, letting a small hole open in the cage. She put her gloves on then shoved her hand into the hole and grabbed Gunther's hand.

Gunther tried to pull on her arm and bite it, but Hanji was quick and safe to pull it out of the hole where Gunther's face can't get. Hanji flipped his arm over and stabbed the syringe into Gunther's vain and empty it.

Gunther immediately reacted. His body started shaking, like he was having a seizure. Heavy panting and groans of pain escaped from his mouth.

Another groan and Gunther was laying on the floor. Hanji and Eren watched in disbelief as the torn and ripped out skin of Gunther's body started to heal at an alarming rate. Gunther's panting of lighter, but the shouts of pain became louder. They weren't just groans and moans anymore, they were real screams of pain.

Screams of pain only a human or an animal could make, nothing a zombie could.

Gunther raise his head slowly and stared at Hanji with confusion. His face was completely healed, almost like nothing even happened.

"Hanji?" Gunther breathed. Hanji stood there with her mouth open wide, still not believing what just happened. Eren, too, had his mouth ajar.

Hanji gulped then opened her mouth to speak to him, but before she could get any words out Gunther grabbed his chest. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. His eyes were wide in fear and desperation.

"Gunther!" Hanji yelled, putting in the password to open the door. The door slid open and Hanji rushed into the cage.

Gunther's body lie motionless on the floor, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Hanji listened for his heart, but heard nothing but silence.

Candidate Zero worked, but Gunther ended up dead anyways.


	38. Candidate One

"Just spill," Sasha groaned as [Name] unwrapped the clean, white towel from her damp hair. [Name] shook her head and shrugged.

"I told you. We talked and ate then fell asleep. That's all," [Name] sighs while letting the violet brush untangle her [h/c] strands. Sasha groans and bangs her head against the wall of the bathroom.

"I wasn't born yesterday," Sasha informs.

"Never said you were," [Name] replies, setting the brush on the vanity.

"Just admit it."

"Admit what?"

"You know," Sasha winks.

[Name] stares at her with fake confusion, "No, I don't know. And I'd rather not know." [Name] brushes past her nagging friend and out the door of the bathroom. Sasha rolls her eyes but follows [Name] down the hall and into the kitchen.

"I can't believe this," Hanji mumbles into her hands as soon as [Name] and Sasha are in earshot.

"Believe what?" Sasha asks, plopping into the stool right next to the scientist and snatching an apple from the fruit bowl on the island. Connie looks up from his comic book, "She made a cure."

Both [Name] and Sasha are surprised by this. "Already?" [Name] questions.

Hanji shakes her head. "It worked, but it didn't."

"What do you mean?" Sasha furrows her eyebrows, confused at what Hanji meant. Hanji sighs and removes her face from her hands.

"I mean, it worked but it also didn't. When I first gave Gunther the antidote he changed, well, more like healed into his normal self and he was back and everything. He even said my name, but not long after he was cured he had a heart attack of some sort," Hanji explains with a frown.

"Do you know what caused it?" [Name] asks.

"I examined his body and I guess the cure didn't completely heal him, because his heart was in pretty bad shape," Hanji says with a sigh.

"You should have Armin help you out," Connie interjects, "you know, with your next cure thing."

Hanji stares at the wall for a few seconds then turns to Connie. "Do you know where he is?"

"Probably in the library or something," Sasha answers. Hanji flashes her a smile and nods, "Thanks."

As Hanji's footsteps fade into the hall, [Name] quietly smiles to herself. "This will all be over soon," she blurts. Sasha grins and nods, taking the first bite out of the fresh, red apple.

"The sooner the better."

"More blood? Seriously?" Eren whines as Hanji shoves a needle into his vein and drains a small amount of blood into her syringe.

"It's necessary," Armin says.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that. But it doesn't mean I enjoy it," Eren mutters, glaring at his best friend. Hanji pulls out the needle and walks over to Armin.

"So last time, Gunther's heart stopped about a minute after the injection?" Armin questions.

Hanji nods, confirming his question. "I don't know exactly what happened, but it just seemed like a regular heart attack." Armin nods, taking in the information.

"Do what you did last time," he orders, "but do it twice."

Hanji blinks, wondering why the blonde haired boy would think that would work. But it was their only idea so far, so she might as well give it a shot. Hanji nods and pours Eren's blood into the clear, plastic tube.

Picking up a black marker, Armin raises the glass tube that will hold the next cure and writes, "Candidate One," on it in big, bold letters.

Levi tosses on a new, clean gray long sleeve on and walks out of his room. Last night went better than he planned, a lot better. And he didn't mind it one bit. In fact, he was actually happy.

Hanji and Armin are working on a cure, him and [Name] are on great terms, and he's not in that piece of shit place ran by Kenny.

It seems like he's on Cloud 9. Strange as it sounds considering what the world has became, but it's the truth. Levi is happy, actually happy.

And he isn't going to let anyone ruin that for him. Not Kenny and his crew, not Jean and his stupid horse face, not anything.

The cure was going to be made and the world would slowly turn back to normal, and [Name] and Levi? They'll live happily with a big house in the city.

But in order for that to happen, the cure needs to be made. So, Levi being more eager than ever walks into Hanji's lab with his signature, "let's get this done" face on. Hanji turns to Levi and grins, glad to have her old lab partner in business again.


	39. Cure Darts

Days pass until the cure actually works. After twenty two attempts at making a successful antidote, Hanji, Armin, and Levi finally complete it. Erwin brought in a different zombie that was wondering around by itself outside the walls, and they tested the cure on it. It worked slower than all the others, but the end result made up for it.

It worked.

All the other times something would go wrong. Heart failure, brain failure, not everything would heal so they died of blood loss and many other bad results came from them. But now, they have something that will work.

The only problem now is how they are going to be able to cure all the zombies.

"We have to cure the whole world at the same time, or at least America and maybe part of Canada and Mexico at the borders," Armin said.

"I don't see how we will be able to cure anything, so far the only way we've been able to cure this one," Levi nods his head to the still confused cured zombie, "is by injecting him. I don't think we'll be able to inject all of them."

"We can try putting it in water and spraying it at them, you know, because they'll probably have their mouths open and everything," Connie suggested.

"Air," Eren suddenly says. With the cure working he was finally released out of his cage.

"Air?" Sasha asks, confused.

"It could work," Hanji ponders, "but we would need different equipment to make it airborne."

"Like what?" Jean asks.

"I think I actually saw some at the mall uptown," Hanji announces, completely ignoring Jean's question, "but the place is a mess now. We tried getting supplies from there a month ago but we barely got out alive."

[Name]'s mood downgrades at the word 'mall.' It was the last place she was Marco, it was the place where he died. She wondered if he was still there, walking around aimlessly like all the other zombies. She wondered if he's killed anyone, turned anyone, ate anyone. Or maybe he's already dead, bullet in head and rotting on the ground as all the other zombies pass him not bothering to give him a second glance.

But then there is the alternative. Maybe he's still alive-ish. And there's still a chance to cure him. But then he'd have to live with the guilt, the guilt after being cured.

Tyler, the first successful cured zombie is still going through it. He remembers everything. A side affect of the cure? They don't know. Maybe it's a good thing, they have their memories, even if it's bad. But then there's all that guilt. The guilt of everything that happened from the moment they change to the second they are cured.

The guilt of letting yourself get turned, getting your teammates turned. The guilt of letting the people around you believe you were gone forever. The guilt of killing others to the point of no return, no turning, no curing. The guilt of turning others, eating others.

The guilt of killing zombies without knowing they could be saved. Tyler said it was like he was trapped behind a wall of desire and hunger to eat human flesh. He said he couldn't control his movements or his motives. It was like being trapped in someone else mind and body. But he was still in there, watching everything his zombie self did.

Marco is probably like that right now. Crying on the inside because he can't control himself. [Name] can't imagine how he feels.

"We can do it," Mikasa blurts, "we can get whatever you need."

"I don't know," Hanji bits her lip.

"You need it right? To make the cure airborne?" Mikasa asks.

Hanji nods, "Yes, but it is in the basement in the middle of the mall. There would be all those zombies to get through and you can't kill them unless it's life or death because of the cure."

"Darts," [Name] suggests, "darts filled with the cure. It would be kind of pointless because whoever we were to cure would be turned back in a matter of seconds, but it would buy us some time to get closer to the basement."

"That could work," Hanji mumbles, "but it'd take awhile to get enough of the cure ready and put into the darts. You all will need a lot."

"We have time," Erwin says while walking into the lab with Eld right behind him, "but no enough. The MP's are planning on exterminating more zombies to expand their base."

"Where'd you hear that?" Jean asks, curious.

"People talk in the Underground," Eld answers. The Underground. [Name]'s heard of it before. When they were slaves at the MP base the word floated around a couple of times. Supposedly it's in the sewers, a mixture of good and bad. But mainly its a safe haven for those passing through, you can buy ammo and trade things.

[Name] didn't think it was real, but apparently it is.

"You didn't mention the cure, right?" Hanji questions. Erwin shakes his head.

"No. That information can't get into the wrong hands. If it were then the MPs would come to destroy it and us and others might try to take it for themselves."

"Do you know when they're planning to exterminate?" Hanji asks.

"Three days. We have three days to cure everyone, otherwise a lot of lives will be lost for nothing."

Two trucks full of the Scouts drive on the abandon roads. Just like LA, the roads are silent with blood and wrecked cars everywhere. Some are drove off the road into the river. Levi, [Name], Connie, Hanji, and Erwin are in one truck. Hanji and Erwin in the front and the others in the back open air. The others, Eld, Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Eren, and Sasha are in the other truck.

[Name] sticks a few more darts into her pockets, just in case. Hanji stayed up all day and night taking blood from Eren and making it into the cure. Once all the darts were filled and Eren regained his blood back, they stocked up and set off.

"Almost there," Hanji informs from inside the truck. In the distance, everyone sees the mall. Lights are still on, so that means the generators are still going, surprisingly. Suddenly [Name] thinks of the concert they played there. They must've killed hundreds of people that could be saved.

And now they can't be.

[Name] shrugs it off as they pull into the parking lot of the mall. The trucks aren't that loud thanks to Gunther who was able to basically put a suppressor on them when he was still alive.

The trucks turn off and everyone gets out, holding their weapons full of darts. "We should go through the back entrance," Levi suggests, "it should be more clear."

"Probably. Let's go," Erwin orders, walking to the back of the mall. Everyone follows as silently as they can.

When they reach the back entrance, Eld, Erwin, and Levi are the first to go in. They do a quick check in the area making sure it's clear then motion the others to come in.

Jean stares at the center of the mall. "Damn there's a lot of them." Armin nods in agreement.

"Good thing we brought these," Hanji grins, pointing to the shields her and Connie brought with them. They had 'S.W.A.T' on them, but obviously wouldn't be needed by them for awhile. Armin, Sasha, and Connie all get one.

"Okay, so Armin, Sasha, and Connie will block and push the zombies out of our way, if any get too close shoot them with a dart. If you get bitten, stab yourself with one of the darts to prevent from turning, got it?" Erwin asks. Everyone nods.

Armin, Sasha, and Connie are the first ones to enter the herd of zombies. As soon as they step foot out of the safe area, all the zombies notice them. Arms reach out at them but are blocked by the shields. In seconds the shields are covered in blood.

Then the rest come out, dart gun in one hand and knifes in the other. Stabbing them will slow them down only a little if it's not in the head. A zombie comes at [Name], but before she can react Levi shoots it with a dart. [Name]'s eyes widen and she turns to Levi. Levi just gives her a small nod to keep going.

As the darted zombie begins to change, the zombies around it turn their attention to it, confused. They couldn't tell if the darted one was one of them or a human. Hanji observed carefully as they passed by the group.

"Guess the distracting thing works," Eren whispers as they quietly walk. Almost all of the zombies are focused on the darted one, so it clears a large space for them to walk in.

"There!" Sasha exclaims pointing at the basement door. They all glance around, noticing there aren't any nearby zombies that could easily attack them if they ran into the basement. [Name] throws the door open and ushers everyone in. Once everyone is already walking down the stairs, she goes to follow them but something catches her eye.

A tall, dark haired zombies stumbles her way. Half of it's face is gone, probably torn off, and there are tears and scratches up and down it's arm. As the zombie gets closer, so does it's face.

[Name]'s eyes widen. Marco.

Quickly [Name] shoots a dart into him then grabs him and pulls him into the basement. She closes the door quietly while holding Marco's shaking body. She puts on of his arms around her neck and walks down the stairs with him. The sound of his wounds healing is loud in [Name]'s ears.

"[Name]? What are you doing?" Connie asks after Hanji walks into one of the rooms to get whatever she needs. As soon as everyone sees Marco by her side, Jean runs over to them.

"I saw him right before I was going to come down," [Name] explains, "so I shot him then grabbed him."

"Oh my god," Sasha whispers. Jean is picking up Marco's limp body off of [Name]'s side.

"Who is he?" Erwin asks as Jean lays Marco on the floor.

"An old friend," Armin informs, not bothering to go any further. Marco's body stops moving, then, just like Tyler, his eyes slowly open and he jots up with a gasp. He blinks confusingly and stares at everyone like they're not real.

"What happened?" He groans.

Jean stares down at him with teary eyes before bringing him into a bear hug. Hanji comes out with a box of supplies and glances at Marco with question.

"I got everything, who is he?" She questions.

"Never mind that, let's get going," Eld answers.

Hanji nods, "Let's go. We don't have much time left."


	40. The Curing

[Name]'s eyes stared worriedly over at Marco, who was sitting in the middle of the back of the truck, rocking back and forth slightly. No long after they had gotten out of the mall with their supplies and loaded up into the trucks, Marco's memories came back. A few details and images at first, then suddenly all at once. It was terrible. Marco felt terrible.

"There was a group," Marco whispers. Jean was sitting right next to him, trying his best to comfort him, but couldn't. The only person who could really understand Marco is Tyler, who is still back at base getting over his memories as a zombie.

"There were three of them," Marco continued, "two girls and one guy. They looked like siblings." Marco stopped and buried his face into his arms that were crossed over his knees.

"I killed one of the sisters," he says after a full minute of silence, "I just.. ate her until she was completely gone and nothing but a few pieces of flesh and bones. She could've been cured like me." The last sentence was just below a whisper, but everyone still heard it.

"Almost there," Hanji informs from the front of the truck. Nobody says anything back. They should be celebrating Marco's return, but the mood was quickly put to rest once his memories came back.

The rest of the ride to base was silent except from quiet sniffling noises coming from Marco. As the trucks pulled up to the gate Marco wiped his eyes and sat up. "This is the base you were talking about?" He asks Jean. Jean nods, not saying anything. Erwin gets out of the truck and punches in a code for the gate then hurries back in and drives in.

Everyone piles out of the truck, Hanji hurries into the large building to start working on the cure to make it airborne. After all, there are only two days left until the Military Police go on a killing spree. Marco's eyes scan over the building, surprised at how big it is.

"C'mon," [Name] says, giving a slight tug on Marco's arm. Marco looks away and nods, following her into the building.

"This place is big," Marco notes. [Name] nods.

"You get used to it.. kind of," she adds.

"So what happened to you guys, you know, after those people busted in?" Marco questions once [Name] hands him some fresh clothes.

[Name] sighs, not really fond of looking back at the past. "Well, they were apart of this organization called the Military Police, or MP for short I guess." Marco walks into the bathroom, leaving the door cracked open so he could still hear [Name]. As he cleans himself and changes, she continues with the story.

"They basically kidnapped us and used us for slaves," [Name] informs, "it sucked. A lot. We were trapped in there for almost a month, until Erwin, Hanji, and Eld got us out after our horribly planned escape. It probably would have worked if Eren didn't knock over a really heavy shelf."

Marco laughs lightly and steps out of the bathroom, refreshed. "I could actually imagine that."

"Yeah well, while we were being chased by MP's with armed guns Jean and Eren kept arguing about whose fault it was," [Name] adds, shaking her head.

"Once we arrived here we found out Hanji was trying her best to work on a cure," [Name] continues.

"I'm guessing she figured it out?" Marco assumes.

She shakes her head, "Actually, she didn't get even close until Eren stepped up and did something."

"What'd he do?"

"Eren was bite, well still is bit, but he has had it since before we met him, before we met you," she explains. Marco's face twists in confusion.

"How is that possible?" He asks.

[Name] shrugs. "That's what we all though when he found out. So they locked him in a cage-thingy for a week and he still hadn't turned. He is immune to it, the zombie virus or whatever."

Marco is shocked and surprised. "Wow, that's, great."

[Name] nods in agreement. "Really great. Hanji was able to use Eren's blood to make a cure and it works, obviously. Now we are trying to make it airborne so we can effect millions at the same time, that's why we were at the mall. We had to get supplies for it."

Marco barely smiles at her, "Well, I'm glad you did." [Name] gives him a faint smile back and leads him to the kitchen, assuming he might be hungry. She opens the fridge and looks for something - anything that he might want. Shrugging, [Name] grabs one of Connie's sandwiches and tosses it to Marco.

[Name] walks over to a stool and sits next to Marco. Marco bites into the sandwich and makes a face.

"Is it that bad?" [Name] asks. Marco closes his eyes and swallows.

"It's better than human flesh," he mutters, taking another bite.

"Was it that terrible?" She asks quietly. Marco swallows and sighs.

"It was horrible," he corrects sadly, "I couldn't control myself, my body, or my mind. It was like being trapped in some psychopath's body."

"Yeah, that's what Tyler said," [Name] sighs.

"Tyler?"

"He was the first once to be cured," [Name] informs, "do you want to meet him?"

Marco finishes the sandwich and shakes his head. "No, that's fine. I'm just going to look around a little bit."

[Name] watches Marco stand up and walk away. He probably wants to be alone, and she doesn't blame him either. But overall, it's great that he's finally back.

"So all this stuff is supposed to make it airborne?" Armin asks as Hanji connects two of the metal parts together.

"Something like that," Hanji answers, not taking her eyes off the parts.

"How does it work?"

"Well, basically, I pour the cure into this-" Hanji points at a cone-like object with tubes connecting at the bottom of it"-and it sort of does it's own thing with the help of my awesome scientist abilities, it should work."

"How long?" Levi asks.

"About a day at least. I'm not completely sure. The only other time I've used one of these was in college to make perfume."

"Why the fuck would you make perfume with that?"

Hanji glares at Levi. "I wanted it to smell extra nice. Shut up." Levi rolls his eyes and walks out of the lab, leaving Armin and Hanji to put the machine together.

A day pasts until the cure is officially airborne. At seven in the morning, and alarm Hanji set up goes off, waking everyone from their slumber.

"What is that?" Connie groans while rubbing his eyes. Everyone is lazily walking towards the sound, half awake. Suddenly an excited non-tired Hanji comes running past them into the lab. Seconds later the loud, annoying, alarm sound is gone.

"What the hell was that?" Levi asks Hanji.

"An alarm for when the cure would be done," she answers with a grin. Hanji unlocks a box in the machine and opens it, another box-like tube-like thing comes out of it.

"What is that?" Marco asks.

"The cure, airborne though," Hanji answers.

"Great, so now we can just unleash it and the world is cured," Jean says. Hanji shakes her head.

"It'll only be enough for America, possibly parts of Mexico and Canada, and we can't do it here, it has to be somewhere high, really high, like almost touching the clouds high."

Connie frowns. "I know a place."

Everyone looks at him. "Really?" [Name] questions.

Connie nods and looks at them, "Yeah, but you guys aren't going to like it."

"Be quiet, alert, and ready to shoot," Erwin orders, making eye contact with all twelve people. The only way there would be able to spread the cure in the air is by getting to the roof of the MP base. Connie remembered that there was something on the roof that looked like some science thing when he had to clean stuff up there.

So here they are, Hanji, Erwin, Eld, [Name], Levi, Sasha, Connie, Jean, Marco, Mikasa, Eren, Armin, and even Tyler, squatting a few yards away from the MP base. They all had two types of guns. One was a normal gun with regular bullets meant for the MP's, and the other was full of cure darts meant for zombies if there's a situation.

Overall, they are ready and loaded.

"Let's go, we have to hurry," Hanji says, slowly walking towards the building, "Armin, Mikasa, and Eren follow me. The rest of you try to hold off anyone who tries to follow or stop us, okay?"

Everyone agreed silently and watched Erwin and Eld take out the two guards who were guarding the side door. Hanji went in first, then Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. Only seconds later and gun shots were already loud and clear.

There goes for being sneaky and shit.

[Name] and Levi headed into the base, everyone else following them. Their footsteps echoed through the open building. Yelling echoed off the walls, as did gun shots.

"INTRUDERS! IT'S THE SCOUTS!"

"This plan is going well," [Name] mutters sarcastically, hiding for cover.

"Tell me about it," Sasha rolls her eyes and barely looks over the box they are hiding behind and shoots.

The others were close, but somewhere else in the building. Jean and Connie are across from [Name] and Sasha and the others are somewhere else out of their sight.

Hanji and Armin race up the stairs with Eren and Mikasa closely behind them. They had managed to make their way through with the help of Erwin, Tyler, Levi, and Marco who had found them once they were chased by some MP.

"We kind of lost the others," Marco informs, "but I'm sure they'll find us soon."

"How much longer?" Hanji pants looking up at the stairs that seemed to double in size.

"It's a really long staircase," Eren grunts.

"Isn't there like an elevator or something?" Hanji frowns.

"Nope. Just another staircase as long as this one."

"I fucking hate the MP," Jean snarls once the last one in their way is shot in the leg. Soon they are all running in the direction of the stairs. They all remember where they are, being held hostage in a building, you kind of memorize the layout out of boredom.

"There!" Someone shouts, pointing in the group of four's direction. [Name] looks back and see at least ten MPs running after them with loaded guns.

"Fucking hell," she swears.

"We're almost to the stairs," Sasha encourages.

A blonde haired MP shoots at [Name]. Just before the bullet tears a hole through her brain, Sasha pulls her over to her. [Name] breaths out of surprise and looks at Sasha.

"If we get out of this alive, I am totally making you a potato buffet."

At the side entrance of the building, zombies enter like ants, a never-ending line. Their groans are heard from a group of MPs and they are quickly shot at. But there is too many zombies, and so little ammo.

The group is quickly turned and eaten.

With Hanji and Armin running up the stairs and everyone else holding off MPs, the plan seems to be going fine.

Well, until a group of zombies come stumbling in.

"How did they get in?" Connie shouts over the groans and gun shots.

"I don't know but they're here and hungry!" Eren shoots one in the leg. The MPs that were previously shooting at them are now laying on the floor, dead.

"They're getting closer!" Mikasa warns.

[Name] glances at Levi, but he was already looking at her. He nods. "Levi and I are going to lead them away, you guys go!" [Name] orders. Sasha looks at her with worried eyes but starts running up the stairs, along with everyone else.

Levi turns to the zombies and waves his arms around, "Come here you disgusting fucks!"

Hanji and Armin reach the roof, sweat dripping from their skin and panting like no other. "There," Armin points over at the tall, large machine. Hanji nods and sprints over to it.

"Where does this go," she whispers, scanning the machine.

"Here," Armin says. Hanji hurries over to him and quickly shoves the box-like cure into the molded spot for it. A countdown begins on a blue screen on the machine.

"Launching starts in ten minutes."

[Name] and Levi are sprinting now. The majority of the herd is following them. Only a small group stayed behind and followed the others. But it's nothing they can't take care of with a couple of darts.

"There is a lot of them," [Name] pants, shooting a couple of darts at the herd. Levi copies her actions then curses.

"What?" She asks.

Levi throws the dart gun to the ground and pulls out his regular gun. "I'm out."

[Name] looks at her ammo supply of darts. "I'm almost out. I knew I should've grabbed some more!"

"It's fine. Just shoot them in the legs once you run out," Levi says. They run faster, putting more ground between them and the zombies.

"And where do you two think you're going?"

"Did you guys do it?" Marco asks once they reach the top of the stairs. A few zombies stayed behind and followed them, but the majority of them are shot in the legs.

"Yeah, but there's a countdown," Armin answers.

"Launching starts in seven minutes."

Levi and [Name] stop and stare at the voice who had managed to survive the shoot out and the herd.

"Move," Levi demands, his voice low and dark. Kenny looks to the side and shrugs.

"I actually like this spot. Don't you guys?" He asks. Annie, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Nile stand near him with guns.

"Either you move or we all die," [Name] growls.

"On the contrary, actually. These three are immune, like your precious friend Eren," Kenny retorts.

"Then you and fuckface will die," Levi remarks.

"Not exactly," Kenny starts, "you see-"

Levi raises his gun and shots a bullet through Kenny's head. The bullet passes through and flies into Nile's, who was standing right behind him. A quiet gasp leave [Name]'s mouth.

"I've been wanting to do that for awhile now," Levi growls as blood pours out of their heads.

"More just keep coming," Tyler sighs.

"I can't wait until this is over," Sasha groans, shooting more darts.

"Launching starts in four minutes."

Annie readies her gun and points it at Levi. "They were dead weight anyway," she spits.

Annie. [Name] hated her from the beginning. Always the cold, rude, and sassy one. [Name] lost count of how many times she had put a gun her head and threatened to kill her.

"I never liked you anyways," [Name] says, confusing Annie for a slight second before a bullet is put into her thigh. Annie screams and clutches her hands around the bleeding wound. The herd is closer now.

[Name] and Levi run past the group of three into the room they were blocking. [Name] quickly slams the two large doors shut.

"Come help me with this," Levi grunts, trying to push a dresser in front of the door. [Name] runs over to him and pushes with him. Some grunts and sweat later, the dresser is in front of the door. Gun shots and yells are heard from behind the door, but a soon muted by the sound of flesh breaking and groans.

"I am so glad they are dead," [Name] pants, "they had it coming."

Jean shoots another dart.

"Launching starts in two minutes."

"We're trapped," [Name] realized after glancing around the room. The zombies push into the door, making it band loudly.

"Yep," Levi sighs checking his magazine, "that door isn't going to hold long, and I'm out. Again." Leave tosses his gun to the floor and leans his head back on the wall directly across from the door and sit down. [Name] walks over and sits down next to him.

"They will cure everyone before then," she tries, but even doubts her own words. More bangs come from the door and the dresser wobbles.

Levi opens his eyes and looks at her. "I hope so, but I doubt it. We're probably going to die in here."

[Name] leans against him and lets out a laugh. "Always so blunt, even at times like this."

Levi smiles lightly and wraps his arm around her and rests his head on top of hers. "We'll get turned for a short while, then cured."

[Name] frowns and shakes her head. "No, there is too many of them. They will eat us before we turn," she says sadly.

Levi looks down at his lap and gently rubs circles into [Name]'s shoulder, "I know." [Name]'s eyes close and a few tears leak out.

"I don't want to die," she whimpers, "not by those things. I don't want them to have even more regret of killing people." Covered in blood and sadness, [Name] holds out her gun and checks the magazine.

Two bullets left.

"No," Levi says immediately.

"We're going to die anyway! I'd rather die by this gun than them!"

"[Name], no."

"So you want to be torn apart like chicken and die painfully?!" [Name] asks, tears streaming down her face. "This is the only way, Levi. And you know that."

"It's still a no," he whispers. [Name] wipes her eyes.

"Please," she begs, "just please."

"Launching starts in one minute."

"Fine," Levi chokes out. He really doesn't want to do it, but he really doesn't want to die by those things. He doesn't want to die at all. He doesn't want [Name] to die at all.

That dream of having a perfect life once this was all over is shattered now. Like a broken mirror.

Levi grabs the gun from [Name]'s possession and cocks it. She snuggles into him, not bothering to hold the tears back anymore. She pulls away from him and looks up. Wrapping two hands around his face, [Name] pulls him into a kiss. Their last kiss.

Levi pulls the trigger.

[Name]'s body goes limp against him. Her lips fall from his and her blood stains his neck. The door budges, and the dresser wobbles. Levi intertwines his hand with [Name]'s limp one.

Slowly, he looks up at the ceiling and puts the gun to his chin. A single tear escapes from his eye and runs down his face and onto [Name]'s head.

He closes his eyes and pulls the trigger.

At the same exact moment the door and dresser gives away.

At the same exact moment, the cure is launched into the air.


	41. Epilogue

\- FIVE YEARS LATER -

The surviving Scouts stand in front of the big, tall headstone that belongs to Levi Ackerman and [Name] [Surname]. The words "OUR HEROES" is carved in big, bold letters on the top of the stone. Under it the words "The people who sacrificed themselves for humanity's sake, our heroes, our saviors."

After the cure was launched, every zombie in America fells to the ground. Immediately Sasha and everyone looked for Levi and [Name]. But once they found them, they realized they were too late.

Surround by fainted zombies was the couple. Pieces of their skin was missing, their clothes were torn, but the main thing that stuck out was how they were holding hands. Even in death they showed their love.

Hanji found something while examining their bodies. Not only the fact that they had killed themselves, but the surprising fact that [Name] was almost a month pregnant.

Thanks to them they were able to launch the cure. But none of them had expected the outcome of their actions.

A few months after The Curing, that's what people call it, America's government started to put itself back together again. With the help of Hanji and a few other scientist, they were able to make more of the cure and send it to every country, curing the rest of the world. After that came what people called The Great Depression II.

Every cured one got their memories back, zombies that were trapped under large things or trapped in general died once they became human from either being crushed to death or starved, and the world was just a mess. Streets were ruined, shops were raided. Food supply was extremely low. Not many farms made it out alive.

It was terrible. The world was a mess for three years, until people actually started doing something about it. Countries that never got along were suddenly helping each other out. Slowly the world was putting itself together again. But nothing would ever be the same.

Scientist created a vaccine for the zombie virus to prevent anything like that to ever happen again.

"Five years already," Connie mumbles. Every year they did this, on the same day they died.

"They were great people," Eren sighs, "even if Levi was an asshole most of the time." Short, quiet laughs echoed with the wind.

"I really wish they were still here," Marco frowns, looking up at the clouds.

Everyone said their own words, and shared memories before they had to go. Sasha stayed behind and squatted down and placed a few [f/c] flowers by the gravestone.

"I really would've liked to be an aunt," she smiles.

"Sasha, come on!"

"Coming!" She looks at [Name]'s name for a brief moment before standing up and running towards them. She caught up with Connie and intertwined her hand with his. He turned and smiled at her then pecked her on the cheek.

Taking one last look at the gravestone, Sasha smiled, remembering how [Name] told her they weren't only living, they were surviving.

And surviving is what she will do.


	42. Alternate Ending

\- FIVE YEARS LATER -

"[Child Name]! Put that down it's dangerous!" [Name] yelled at her almost five-year-old son. After the cure was launched and America was healed, others countries began to be cured by Hanji's cure. [Name] and Levi had almost sacrificed themselves, but in the end they just made it. As soon as Levi held the gun to [Name]'s head, the cure was launched. If that hadn't happened they'd either die of suicide with no pain or have been torn to shreds by zombies.

But neither of those happened. It didn't come to it. And they are both glad they didn't take the life-ending decision. Now, they have a child. A beautiful boy named [Child's Name]. He has [Name]'s hair, but Levi's eyes. His face is shaped like Levi's but his nose looks like [Name]'s. Soon after everything kind of settled down, [Name] found out she was pregnant. Her and Levi would've gotten married right then and there if the whole government and everything weren't all messed up.

"It's fine mommy! I know what I'm doing!" [Child's Name] yelled back, continuing to walk along the old and beaten planks with nails sticking out of them. Right now everyone is helping to rebuild the whole. One day at a time.

"Seriously [Child's Name]! Get down!" [Name] yelled, now desperate for her child to get off the dangerous planks. Just when she was about to put down her tools and force him to get off, her knight in shining armor swiftly grabbed [Child's Name] and placed him on the ground. [Name] smiled thankfully at the love of her life as he picked up their child and started walking towards her.

Levi kissed [Name]'s lips softly as soon as he was near enough. [Child's Name] squirmed in his arms and made puking noise, blocking his view with his hands. "Gross!"

[Name] pulled away and laughed, ruffling [Child's Name] hair. "You'll do it too one day."

[Child's Name] made a disgusted face, "No I won't! That's gross!" Levi chuckled and set him down. [Child's Name] instantly ran away, but not too far to where he was out of their view. He ran over to Connie and Sasha and started helping them with putting up panels for the new house they were building.

"Okay, you hold that end and I'll hold this one, okay?" Connie asked with a raised eyebrow. [Child's Name] nodded quickly and picked up the end he was told to.

"Alright, now start walking backwards until I say stop," Connie instructed. [Child's Name] walked backwards until Connie said stop.

"Now, can you grab me that screwdriver and some nails?" Connie asked.

"Yeah," [Child's Name] smiled and ran over to the tools.

"Here you go little one," Sasha said handing him the nails. [Child's Name] looked at her stomach strangely.

"When did you get so fat?"

Connie burst out laughing, covering his mouth with his hand to try and hide it. [Name] also started giggling from where she was, and Levi chuckled. Sasha blushed hard, embarrassed that the child thought she was fat.

"It's called a baby, like you were," she said quickly.

"I'm not a baby," [Child's Name] argued.

"No, but you were. You see, I have a baby in my stomach. Just like how you were in your mom's stomach," Sasha explained.

"Why is the baby in your stomach?"

"Because that's just how it works."

"Did you eat it?"

"[Child's Name] come over here! It's almost time to go home!" Levi shouted, saving Sasha from having to explain further and get embarrassed.

"Okay!" [Child's Name] ran over to his parents and followed them into their truck.

"Am I really fat?" Sasha wondered out loud, suddenly feeling upset. Connie's arms wrapped around her round belly and kissed her head.

"Not at all."

"I wish he'd give up on that story," Levi groaned, flopping into their kind sized bed. [Name] put down her book that Armin lent her and laughed.

"The one with the dragons?" She asked.

"The one with the dragons," Levi confirmed, his voice muffled my the pillow his face was resting on.

"How many times?"

"Eight." [Name] laughed again.

"I'm seriously going to throw that book away," Levi threatened.

"He's only four, this is bound to happen," [Name] sighed, "there will be other stories."

Levi flipped over, now lying on his back. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. "I'm so tired."

[Name] nodded, agreeing. "Me too."

Levi opened his eye and smirked, rolling over on his side and eventually on top of [Name], holding himself up with his arms. "But not tired enough for this," he said, leaning down to kiss [Name]. [Name] smiled kissing back, and with a single movement, turned off the lamp.


End file.
